To most of us, this Santa represents a happy character decoration for the season. We think of toys, homemade cookies, gifts, maybe even snow and all the play that happens when we have a snow fall. To Andiamo, this is a huge, evil, scary character that suddenly appeared on our neighbor's lawn. Just as he was all barked out, and sort of resigned to it, one of the many storms we have been having, came in with strong winds. Instead of standing, (still threatening) but apparently calm, Santa began performing some ritualistic dance. His gigantic body jerked and twisted seemingly trying to break free of his tether. This was so much worse than the calm Santa, Andi just lost it. His barking took on a higher pitch that almost approached hysteria. But because Andi is a very brave young dog, he still faced this creature head on (from across the road). Rocky, the dog that lives with Santa came racing to the edge of his property, barking at Andi. Rocky did not seem to realize that Andi was barking at his Santa. Rocky almost matched Andi's hysterical barking and that caused Pirate and Journey to run down to the fence and give Andi some back up. All in all it was a mess. No one except Andi really knew what he was barking at.
Andi had done everything he could think of to warn us and no one seemed worried. Pirate and Journey went out to see what he was barking at, a few times, but they did not even bark. Apparently this job was left to Andi. Mom simply looked out the window a few times, patted Andi and told him he was a good dog, ... very brave. He decided he would just have to keep a close watch on this monstrosity. At least that way, if it broke its leash and headed our way, he could try once more to warn us.
The following day, everyone was outside playing, while mom took pictures. Suddenly Andi noticed that Santa seemed to have fainted. He was laying in a crumpled heap on the ground. Andi stared and stared and tried to detect any movement, but nothing happened. Santa was apparently dead. Maybe it was all the fierce barking that just frightened him to death.
Santa is definitely not moving, maybe we will have a good Christmas after all. Whatever Christmas is.... Andi decided to just sit and watch Santa for a while, to be certain he was not moving.
Eventually Andiamo grew comfortable with Santa resting in a heap on the lawn. The next day we went to Journey's agility class and Pirate and Andi waited in the car until after class, so we could go for a walk in the woods by Mary's barn. Next we went to Trader Joes. It is located in Vancouver and is the closest one to our house. We often stop there after class.
Next I had to stop at another store when we got back to Kelso. This is where our good little Andi decided to be not quite so good. I have been able to leave bags of groceries in the car with the dogs for years. I know there had to have been a learning period, but I had honestly forgotten about that. Andi is such a perfect little guy and he acts so mature most of the time, I trusted Pirate and Journey to keep him out of trouble. Well, we have been telling him he had to be good if he wanted lots of gifts from Santa.... I guess he figured Santa was not watching, since he was in a heap on the lawn.
When I got back to the car, Pirate and Journey were sitting in the front seats, pretending they did not know Andiamo. I guess Andi just thought he would have a little snack. He had opened a container of Spicy Pumpkin Biscottis. About a third of them were gone. Next he had opened a container of Chicken Breast Medallions with Coconut Red Curry Sauce. He had apparently enjoyed about a quarter of that package. Perhaps by that time the heat from the curry sauce reached his taste buds, or maybe that is when he saw me coming back to the car. Maybe he had worked up an appetite chewing my cell phone charging cable into tiny bits. That happened either before or after he dismembered my binocular case. He didn't hurt the binoculars, they just no longer have a nice leather case in which to reside. Journey and Pirate were very ashamed for him. He was not ashamed... not in the slightest. He was just full of love and kisses to welcome me back to the car. It was hard to believe I was gone long enough for all that, but I knew I was pushing it a bit to make another stop when they had been in the car so long.
There was no punishment. Just a short lecture about those things having belonged to mommy. I did tell him Santa may have seen what he did. But since I was the one at fault and it was plain to see he felt no guilt, I just resolved to work on those things after the new year. My car is not big enough for a crate that is big enough for Andi now. I tried thinking outside the box and realized his puppy crate would fit, and would hold the groceries just fine in the future, until I manage to train him as well as I trained my other guys. Hope I will remember how I did that, because they are really good. They got extra praise. I checked their breath and they had not even sampled the Red Curry Sauce.
One good thing happened. While washing dog bed covers I found the lens from my glasses that I thought Andiamo lost. I had found the frame in the bed, with one lens missing. I did a lot of searching, but had no luck finding it. So this was a plus, for sure. Guess I should tell Santa that bit of goodness.
I will not mention that I have had to wash Andiamo and Journey three times in the last two days because they found some mud in which to conduct their wrestling matches. Even Pirate is disgusted at that. If I could ask Santa for one thing, it would probably be to please, please, please stop the rain. It has rained every day for 18 or maybe 19 days now. Our weather man says that our rain total for the year went from half of what we should have for the year - to a record of the most rain ever, in December. There is flooding and mud slides are every where. Enough already!
