Best Friends

Remember when you used to be the center of the universe? Then your child grew old enough to want nothing more than to play with the kid down the street as many hours of the day as possible?

Turns out puppies do the same thing. Kharma will do anything to play with Echo. She hears her across the street and the whining and pawing and jumping and barking begins. If I make the mistake of opening the gate, she flies across the cul-de-sac as I give thanks yet again that we don't live on a busy street. If she's on leash, I'd better have a firm grip before my little freight train decides she wants to jump the track. Even our daily walks begin with her begging to go to Echo's house instead.

When they are together, they play till they drop. This photo was taken an hour and a half after they began their playdate in our backyard. That's how long it took for them to stay still for thirty seconds. About one minute later they had their second wind and were romping again.

In the park/pasture, they must run for miles as they either chase the frisbee or each other. Then they head for the black muck of the irrigation ditch for a refreshing drink and dip. Echo doesn't show the dirt, but Kharma can't just be hosed off, she actually has to be soaped clean before we can enjoy her white go-go boots yet again. And it frustrates me no end as she slurps a well-fermented slurry of cowpoop patty and nitrogen fertilized H-two-Oh. I don't really object to the patties; I think eating manure is a dog's inalienable right. It's more the idea that combine a little fuel oil with the nitrogen and you get a really nice explosion and here is my precious girl drinking it as well as splashing it all over her body. Makes me wonder why we shell out extreme amounts of money for a really high-quality, organic puppy food.

We're signing up for doggy classes although they don't start till later in October and we really could use them now. Perhaps we should just harness Kharma to a modern-day turnspit with Echo in front of her. We could undoubtedly generate enough electricity to run our house and Echo's too.