Calling all Dogs

I like chocolate. I am not a fancy chocolate person - I like plain milk chocolate - Hershey and M&M's, sometimes Dove, sometimes Cadbury. I don't like to get things mixed up in my chocolate - no nuts, no raisins or other fruit. Just the melt in my mouth sweet buttery inexpensive chocolate. Sure I can go with an expensive chocolate and appreciate it but I don't need it. I get anxious when I find myself in a mysteriously risky situation like a box of chocolates. It makes my crabby when I bite into a piece of chocolate expecting it to melt in my mouth and coat my teeth only to have an unexpected sensation like crunching nuts or oozing raspberry jam.

Chewie has the same preference in tennis balls that I have in chocolate. He likes the actual plain old common tennis balls. He doesn't like the ones that you can buy at the pet stores that come in multiple colors. He likes the Penn or Wilson neon yellow green tennis balls. He will also chase the Chuck It rubber balls. Once he has had a tennis ball in his mouth that is the one he is determined to retrieve for me with every toss. If another dog has a Penn tennis ball it doesn't matter if it has the same number on it as his, he cannot trade it out and he knows if the other dog mixes it up. He wants the ball with his spit on it - no bones about it. He will pick up the other dogs ball and chase after the other dog giving his Chewie eye contact but slow trot generating the stubborn, something isn't right here Chewie sulk to the other dog. He waits for the other dog to drop his ball, sometimes he tosses the one in his mouth at the other dog. With unusual stealth speed as soon as the other dog drops Chewie's ball he races in and picks it up and runs back to me with HIS tennis ball.

Gromit has a whole different concept of the tennis ball. He thinks that take away is a better game and cheats Chewie by running faster with longer lighter legs and grabbing the tennis ball before Chewie can get to it. Then he runs circles, literally, around Chewie until Gromit is bored and drops the ball without care wherever he is so inclined or perhaps at the second his mind moves to the next great game he has in his brain. Poor Chewie just has to follow him until it is dropped, the guy cannot get respect from Gromit here -

There is one type of tennis ball though that Gromit cannot resist. One that keeps even the mighty white dog entertained. It is the Squeaky Ball. All bets are off when the squeaky ball comes out. Gromit loves the squeaky tennis ball. This weekend I took the squeaky ball to the park to help entertain Gromit while Chewie was playing fetch. Just thought Chewie might benefit from a little 'uninterrupted' retrieval time. So about midway through our romp, Gromit got the glean in his eye and ran at me and then paralleled Chewie waiting for me to throw the ball. He was going to steal it - you could just tell.

So I tossed to the ball out over Chewie's shoulder and called Gromit. He snapped his head around when I reached in my pocket and squeezed the special ball - he leapt up in the air and came running. So I tossed it to him. He grabbed it and promptly turned around in a circle squeaking the ball in with his head up and shoulders broad, then facing the park and standing steady - he squeaked at the big field of dogs in the distance like some lion calling his pride. "Squeak - a - squeak - a S Q-U-E-A-K!! - Calling all dogs!" And sure enough, in the ever magical Gromit way - dogs came running - I couldn't help but laugh as dogs came running from all directions - a little Brittany Spaniel whose feet didn't touch the snow until he was close enough to leap at Gromit's face, a Chocolate Lab that you could hear the wind move it was wagging its tail so hard, a yellow lab who like a magnet just couldn't help but come running, and finally barrelling his way over a big Newfie - they all just came racing at Gromit. He was so proud of himself he tossed the ball in the air and...promptly lost it . WHOOPS!