We enjoyed having Teddy, our east-coast granddog, as a house guest over the holiday weekend while our daughter and her two sons went skiing at Seven Springs Mountain Resort in Pennsylvania.
Teddy, a Maltese, seems to enjoy his short vacations at our place in the country. He growls and sometimes even barks when he sees a browsing deer, overworks his black nose tracking squirrels, and refreshes his favorite piddle spots on every possible occasion.
Teddy doesn’t mind cold and wind, but Tuesday morning brought ice-covered snow, which he doesn’t enjoy. He walks well on the slippery stuff, but he doesn’t waste a minute between his last piddle and his return to the house.
Teddy works us hard when he visits. He would sit beside us for hours if we’d pet him that long. If we stop petting him, he turns and gives us his “please continue” look. If we don’t resume, he gives us a little bark to encourage us to continue. And several times a day he challenges us to a tug of war with “Blue,” his favorite toy, which he sometimes wears as a necklace. The tugging game begins when he comes growling and shaking “Blue” and Ellen or I take up his challenge.
This visit I also learned that Teddy actually is in control when there’s a leash between us. On Friday when we walked up driveway to get our mail, I went to the box, but Teddy stopped short—exactly the length of the leash—and sat down to await my first couple of steps back up the slope toward the house. Perhaps he thinks I have a senseless habit of walking to the black box every day and then turning around and walking back to the house.
When we took Teddy back to his home Tuesday afternoon, he paused a moment to piddle on his front lawn and then dashed up the front steps and waited for us to open the door.
Good-bye, Teddy, it was a great holiday weekend.
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