Lagniappe update

OK, so he doesn't walk so well. He still swims good though, so we went out swimming together today. For a while, I threw sticks into the river and he swam out to get them.

He doesn't bring them back to me, though--he never has. He takes each one to his own little spot on the bank and stacks them all up...sort of a strategic stick repository. He then guards that pile of sticks against all comers, me included. Those are HIS sticks, dammit.

So a game of "fetch" requires not one stick like you'd use for a normal dog, but a whole bundle of them; he lives to go chase them but you never, ever get them back.

Today we played another game, one I call "reverse fetch". This one works with me swimming out a bit as Lagniappe sits on the shore guarding his sticks. I dive down to the bottom of the river and find another stick, and when I surface and wave it so that he can see it, he plunges in and comes paddling after me to get it (because "all your sticks are belong to us"). I swim away from him as best I can while holding the stick out of water, but eventually he grabs it and a game of Tug O' War ensues, usually ending with me getting clawed on bare skin before I let him have it. Then he swims for his stick stash and I chase him and try to grab it back. We can do this until we're both tired.

And here he is, contentedly sitting guard on his stash o' sticks. Anyone but me approaching will be barked at; if I approach, he cries and tries to run off with as many sticks as he can pick up at once.