That Dog can Spell

I never cease to be amazed by our black lab, Joe. Many of you know that he was an outside dog for about 9 years of his life. We brought him in this summer when it got so blasted hot and he wasn't getting around very well. Well now he's an inside dog and I think....know, I KNOW...he rules the roost. For a while he slept in his kennel/crate at night. We got sick of the howling. He now sleeps on a comfy-cozy piece of lambswool in our bedroom at night. We only put him in his kennel when we leave the house for an afternoon. Well, quite honestly, he doesn't like it and when he sees us put our coats on he goes up in our bedroom, stands on his lambswool and growls at us. Not a growl that shows his teeth, just a growl that says, "You're ticking me off, you're leaving and gonna put me in that cage and I'm not going!" It even got to the point when we said the word "kennel" he would start to show his dissatisfaction. So, then we started to spell it. It reminded me of the days when the children were toddlers and we had to spell things to avoid their earshot. And, now...when we spell k-e-n-n-e-l....Joe knows and decideds he's gonna stay on his spot and not budge. Well, yesterday I got the bright idea of getting his leash so he might think he was going for a walk....All this to get the dog into the kennel so we could go to a basketball game. Well, it worked....he perked up, stopped growling, wagged his tail and couldn't wait to get out the door. I walked him out the front door, down the sidewalk, down our driveway and right into the back door and into our family room where his kennel is. I thought to myself, "Gotcha!!" It worked again this morning when we were going to church. I just wonder how long it will work before Joe figures out that leash = kennel. He's one smart dog. Someday I'll come into my home and he'll be sitting at the computer playing Free Cell or something.....I'm almost sure of it.