We're back

Sorry for the absence. Lagniappe and I went visiting for Christmas. Went to see family and to visit Aaron of The Shekel and his family. Those of you who follow that blog may note that he's been off-line for a bit too. Well that's because he poked himself in the eye with a stick or some similar object to get out of a trial. (Personally I would have just called in sick, but he's the kind of guy that has to actually BE sick or injured before he'll call off, apparently even to the point of maiming himself.) But he's finally back on-line and with a somewhat plausible explanation.

Anyway, Lagniappe had a ball playing in the deep snow with my nephew, The Spud. Spud's nine years old, and he erred grievously by challenging Lagniappe and I to a snowball fight on the first day. Needless to say, it was a colder, wetter Spud who finally went back in the house. But that was after much frolic in the snow. Lagniappe hasn't seen snow in a while and he was in his glory in over a foot of the stuff. Spud wanted to make a snowman, but every time that he started to roll a snowball on the ground, Lagniappe grab the snowball and run off with it. I eventually got him to stop that, but then he started pulling the gloves off of Spud's hands and running off with those. Of course he wanted Spud to chase him, but Spud's not one for running or chasing, preferring instead to simply whine and complain, so I had to deal with that too. But finally Spud (with a bit of my help) managed to build a nice tall snowman...which he enjoyed for about thirty seconds before Lagniappe ran up and jumped on it and knocked it over. I was waiting for the crying to begin, but for some reason, Spud thought that that was funny. Who can understand kids and/or dogs?

But Karma came back on Lagniappe later when Aaron and his family came over to where I was staying. Do you know what goes "Clunk!" and "YELP!" at the same time? Well if not, you've obviously never heard a German Shepherd's head getting slammed in a car door. And I hadn't either until Aaron's wife--who shall remain nameless--accidentally pulled that one off as an inquisitive Lagniappe was looking into their car as she was unpacking it.
Lagniappe still managed to have a great Christmas (after his CAT scan) though. He got quite a few new toys. He has always loved Christmas and thoroughly enjoys unwrapping his own presents. (And you need to wrap him a few and let him do this or he will jump in and help others unwrap theirs whether his help is desired or not.)
He got lots of doggie loot, and as he always does, he piled it all up in one treasure trove and zealously guarded them all. Here he is with some of his toys. (He got more later, and the stack grew.) All of his toys must remain in the pile. If you picked one up, he would come to you, take it back, and deposit it back on the pile. If he decided to go lay somewhere else, he would move all of the toys one by one to the new location. I suspect that this quirk of his goes back to his early days in a common kennel with other dogs as he's always been very quick to guard his possessions and even snacks given to him have to be taken somewhere else to be eaten in private. But hey--whatever floats his boat. It's Christmas--a time for humans to reflect on Jesus' sacrifice and for little kids and dogs to enjoy presents. SANTA!!!