Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Bella's special game

Bella is my dog. My mixed-breed, attitude-full, totally spoiled dog. Second only to her obsession with blue racquetballs (must be blue- the green ones hold no special charm) she loves to play the 'take away the chewie' game. The other night my friend Greg came over, and made like he was going to eat her - he was not familiar with The Game.

As soon as he adopted The Stance, which entails hunching over and making menacing faces and noises like the Hulk or Godzilla, and reaching for the dog with your hands held like claws, she ran and got her little rawhide chewie. The first part of The Game is that she offers you the chewie. Wow, you think, nice dog. Then, when you reach for the chewie, she warns you that she will take off your hand, first by baring ALL her teeth, showing at least an inch of pink gum. And before you can retrieve your hand, she lunges and barks and snaps all at the same time.

If you retreat, chastised, to your corner of the couch, she will follow you there and offer the chewie again. In fact, if you are not at all interested in the chewie and probably now a little afraid of the dog, this makes The Game all the more interesting to her, and she will continue to offer and then retract her offer many, many times.

The victims always ask if she will actually bite them. I don't know if she will or not - and I tell them that- yeah, she might bite you - and then they keep doing it. That's the fun part for me. They actually shriek with laughter when she lunges and snaps at them.

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