The Lean

My neighbor's dog is visiting for part of the weekend, and it's delightful. When I sit down, she sits next to me and does the lean thing. (Outside, when we greet, she also does the standing lean.) I figure the lean thing means that she's content to sit with me and be near. Small dogs do the lean, too, but it's way more convincing from a bigger dog. I imagine a mastiff would be pretty darned convincing, but a lab is perfectly fine.

When her own people appear, then of course I'm beneath notice, unless she's been with her own people and is greeting me. Or if her own people are coming back, she's happy to include me in her general happiness once she's expressed her total joy at their appearance for a few minutes.

She came out to scrape the drive with me this morning, and after a bit, she did the one foot up thing, so I put her inside. That was not good; it would have been far better if I'd kept the pack together and come inside, too. She let me know this by barking while I finished up the drive.

Then we went out to do the back deck, which is shaded in the morning and sunny in the afternoon. And within a very few minutes, she was doing the thing where dogs try to hold up four feet all at the same time, so I let her back in. She got right in her kennel thing, and looked out the window at me with grave disappointment, but no barking. (It's a sliding door window thing, and the kennel is there because it's bird tv sometimes, and she likes bird tv.)