Pages

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Love for a quarter

CJ turns 73 next week. His brother, Judson, just turned 85. Judson found a yellowed note that he sent to his father on the occasion of his little brother's birth, in the depression in Missouri:

Dear Daddy,

Since the baby has come I know we are under circumstantial problems. I am provided with well enough and think I could get out the ashes and coal for nothing.

You put the extra quarter in on anything the boy would kneed.

Your son,
Judson

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Human School

Romeo here again. Thought I could train these new humans, CJ and Carol, like I did the others. They had already picked up some bad habits before I adopted them, so today I took them to school.

The teacher, Kristen, looks a lot like one of them. Tall, hairless, only uses two legs. But, she uses that to fool them, so she can train them better. She agrees with us that they are nothing but big Pez dispensers, but she wants them to give up more treats when we demand them.

We all got there for class, and she made them line up and sit in little plastic chairs. They were so cute. They took turns introducing us and letting us show our stuff. They paraded around and smiled at us and pretended they were already trained. We knew better. That Kristen is amazing. She had them doing tricks in no time. I even had Kristen walk around in circles backwards, showing the humans how to do it. They have a week to practice.

We worked on teaching the humans to heel, then come, then sit. They can't learn but one of these at a time. For heel, they must not tug on our leash if we tug first. They must sit, then come, then we can get them to heel. We will accept treats only if they get these right. They have these little clickers that keep them happy if they don't earn treats. They are so cute.