BARK

My dog loves to BARK.
and BARK and BARK and BARK.
When he is not feeling compelled to BARK,
He lies in BARK outside,
getting BARK all over his furry little body.
Then he comes in, walks down the hall, and through the house.
Leaving a trail of BARK.







...Did I mention, however, that he is very loving and patient with children--especially babies? So I guess we will put up with the BARK.

Molls was the first baby he knew. He was very gentle with and protective of her.

One day, he was over at Molly's house, lying by the baby Molly. Suddenly, my sister-in-law turned on the vacuum. Chewy knows the vicious-ness of vacuums, so he ran to safety. He looked down through the banister and noticed that the baby had not run to safety and that the vacuum was getting closer and closer to the blanket she was lying on! He suppressed his own fears, ran back to where Molly was, positioned himself between her and the enemy and barked and barked (of course) at the vacuum. When the vacuum failed to retreat, he took matters into his own hands (or mouth, as the case may be), grabbed the corner of Molly's blanket, and tried to drag her to safety. Alas, he didn't get anywhere, because Molly was as big as he was, but you get the point. He is still a hero!

The rescue happened a few weeks after these photos were taken:
A demonstration of mutual love (and patience) between Molly and Chewy:

Another favorite story: We were having a BBQ in our backyard with all sorts of neighborhood friends. Chewy loves these events because, he has discovered, if he follows little kids around, he usually gets a lot of hot dogs, hamburgers, and all sorts of goodies. At one point during this BBQ, I found a little two year old boy playing with Chewy. By "playing" I mean holding Chewy's mouth open with both hands, and looking at Chewy's teeth (or something--I don't really know why he wanted Chewy's mouth open). Chewy simply looked over at me with an expression of "could you please get this child out of my mouth!?!" He didn't growl, pull, scratch, or bite (which I would assume, would be the natural reaction of a dog in this predicament). I rewarded his patience with some hot dog. After I extracted the child.


Chewy is willing to share his pillow:



Miss Belle loves Chewy more than she does anyone else in our family (it seems...). My sister in law has the CUTEST video of Bella and Chewy dancing (on her private blog, so you won't be able to access it--maybe she will email me the video and I can post it here) together.

Chewy has been wonderful with George, as well. When George was just a couple of months old, Chewy brought him a ball. Too bad George did not know how to control his hands yet and couldn't throw it. But, like I said, Chewy is patient. And will wait for George to get big enough to throw balls for him. Meanwhile, he will protect George from vacuums and such, and allow George to grab his fun, soft fur.



Did I mention he is patient with older children too?: