Ted has developed two new tricks that are incredibly cute and yet simultaneously annoying. I’m unsure of how this paradox comes together, but there it is.
The day that our new furniture was delivered, Ted discovered that he likes to hang out under it. JG brought him down to the room to check out the amazing matching-ness of our furniture, and he crept right under the bed! He just barely fits under the frame, so he army-crawls to get himself underneath and travel the length. I chased Ted around and under the bed with my camera in an effort to capture photographic evidence, all the while bemoaning the harsh light, the dog’s scary, demon-possessed eyes, and the annoying fact that white dogs absorb flash. Even in an army crawl, Ted is too quick for pictures at close quarters, and even worse, he has figured out that it’s really hard for us to get him out from under things, which has definitely increased his sneaky quotient. This behavior has progressed to slinking underneath ottomans, slats of a ladder, and the sink in the laundry room, whether not the offending traffic obstruction warrants a full-on army crawl.
More recently, Ted realized that he could jump up onto furniture, which is nice in a way, because then we don’t have to lift him up to the couch all the time. Unfortunately, he seems to gravitate toward the furniture the we don’t use very often, namely the hand-me-down sofa and armchair that were relocated to another room when we bought our giant, comfy sectional. He hops up on the couch and inevitably sheds hair on whatever coats we’ve flung on it or noses into the stack of mail on the end table. In the worst-case scenario, Ted props up his paws on the neighboring half-wall, but when his humans come running at him in a panic, he gathers that maybe it’s not a great idea to go hurtling over the wall into the stairwell below. After he jumps down off the couch, Ted gives us that sideways, quizzical head-tilt, as if we were the crazy ones.
At least he’s cute.
Come and get your (almost) daily dog dose with Rufus, Ben, Gus, and Zapp!
5 comments
That dog is TOO CUTE. He’s like a little Toto!
Actually, Ted is pretty much a white Toto, which I find to be the easiest way to describe him. The dog that played Toto was a Cairn Terrier, and they’re related to Westies.
Annoying and cute are a very common combination, like adorable babies who cry all night. The cuteness is nature’s way of preventing people from killing annoying things out of frustration.
That makes complete sense. It reminds me of a “Calvin and Hobbes” comic strip where he yells to wake up his mom in the middle of the night to ask her how ugly things are attracted to each other enough to mate, like if that’s love, and she says, “Whatever it is, it’s keeping me from strangling you right now.”
Ben does the army crawl thing too! It’s possibly one of the cutest things ever.
I hope Ted stays off that half wall! Ben jumped off of our deck (probably a 6-foot drop) when we were building it before we had the railing up. He doesn’t have the greatest depth perception, obviously. He was fine, though — just stumbled a little and realized maybe that wasn’t the best idea before running around the yard completely unscathed.
I love the army crawl, but it is so darn hard to photograph. I love when Ted’s backside and little hind legs are just peeking out from under a piece of furniture. After his attempt to take a flying leap, we’re being more careful about reprimanding him when he gets on that couch. I think it would be like 12 feet to fall…something like that!
Dogs just love the den-like feeling of resting under furniture, I think. Our dogs always slept behind the toilet, especially in the summer when the cool porcelain probably felt nice.
Yes, that makes sense. When we kept Ted in the laundry room, in his first weeks with us, he always gravitated under the sink.
Cute cute cute!
Rufus loves to army crawl his way under the bed. The only problem is that he’s very sausage-like and often gets stuck under there!
Oh, no! Do you yank him out, then?
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