Our Cousin Villy

This past weekend, Lucy and Ricky's cousin, Deville came to stay with us while my brother made a quick trip to Austin.

Deville weighs over 150 pounds, so he's at least 4 times the Ricardos size. And maybe because of that, Lucy felt like she had to be extra sassy at first!  She barked and charged at Deville, while he just calmly stood there panting.  He brought a rope toy from his home to play with, but she took it from him, and ran off to the bushes with it.

Ricky stayed in my lap a little more than usual.  But that was certainly okay with me!

But soon enough, they both warmed up to Deville, because, really-- how could you not? 

When Lucy and Ricky got a little rough with each other, Deville played peacemaker, just by walking near them.

 

Then, they would lay down and take a rest, while he monitored.

When it was time for Deville to go home with my brother, he sat on my porch, refusing to come out to the truck, because he wasn't ready to leave the Ricardos.  They all had so much fun!

But finally, my brother got some treats for Deville and lured him into the truck. As you can see, Deville's tongue is a pretty good indication of how tired he and the pups were after their time together!

Door Manners

"May we come in, please?"

From a very young age, Lucy and Ricky have practiced polite door manners.  They sit before they come in, and even more importantly, they wait until they are invited in.  They come inside this way, and it's also the drill for going outside.  Except when they go outside, they also have a little bell that hangs from the door what they ring.

They are both such little charmers!

Don't Talk To Strangers

Even if they're this cute?!

Ricky and I were out for our walk yesterday morning.  Ricky is so great at walking on a loose leash now, that I like to challenge him with distractions.  So I decided walk him by playground of our neighborhood school during recess.

3 kids saw Ricky, and I heard one of them say, "Perrito!!"  Which means something like, "extremely handsome puppy" in Spanish.  They ran towards us, and poked their little fingers through the chain link to give Ricky a pet.  The kids were really polite, didn't do anything to scare him, and he was happy to meet them. Yay Ricky.

But then I heard a lady's voice yelling, "Hector!  Come and see Ms. Schyler."  And I wondered, "Uh oh.  Is Ms. Schyler the principal?  And what in the world has Hector done?"

Well, it turns out, this lady just refers to herself in the third person.  Because as she approached the kids, she said, "Hector, is that gum in your mouth?  No?  Don't lie to Ms. Schyler." 

Then she went on to ask him more questions...

"Hasn't Mr. Schyler told you that you can't play way over here?"

I felt like Ms. Arista really should intervene!  Poor Hector was getting pummeled with all sorts of questions all because a little puppy happened to walk by the playground and caught his eye.  (Also, two other kids eyes, but for some reason, Ms. Schyler wasn't directing her line of questioning at them.)

But, we just kept on walking.  I was afraid we might get in trouble too. 

Long ago, sort of a life time ago, I was a 1st grade teacher.  I know how exhausting certain kids can be.  But walking over to pet a cute dog?  Chewing a piece of gum on the playground?  Is that really such a bad thing?

Apparently, Ms. Schyler things so.
Sorry, Hector!  :~|

Saturday In The Park

Months ago, when the Ricardos were still pretty little puppies, I had declared that we were giving up on Dog Park.  At least until they got bigger.  One dog in particular picked on Lucy so much, and no one (the dog owner) was getting the dog off of Lucy but me, and I just decided on that day: "No more."

But recently, Ricky has started to think he can drag Lucy around like a rag doll.  He seems very timid when he sees other dogs when we're out on our walks.  Maybe because Lucy is the one dog that he feels comfortable around, he tries to dominate her at home.  Lucy doesn't like it though.  And neither do Fermin and I!

So, Fermin came up with the idea to take them up to dog park this weekend.  We thought getting them around lots of other dogs might be just the thing to help Ricky with this little problem.

The car ride- to the park!

They both did great.  We took them to the "Little Dog Park" as opposed to the "Big Dog Park" right next door.  Just outside the gate to the Little Dog Park, it says "All dogs must be 30 lbs or less. NO EXCEPTIONS." Technically, I think the Ricardos might just be about a pound over the limit, but no one had a scale, and I was pretty sure we wouldn't be challenged.

See? They fit right in with the 30 lbers!

The Ricardos had so much fun!  And made lots of new friends.  Ricky did seem to be a little dependent on Lucy, and if she ever got very far from him, he was would look around until he spotted her, and then run to her. 

Little Ricki and Ricky Ricardo

We even saw a puppy Australian Shepherd that I called Little Ricky.  But I found out she was a girl...  Little Ricki Lee Jones!

After about 45 minutes, we had to get going.  Lucy and Ricky had such a great time, but were exhausted!

The car ride home!

We actually went back the very next day!  We met another Aussie puppy named Dottie, and another Aussie named ZOE!  Zoe is 8 and is great at catching the frisbee... So I got to get some tips on that.  Because I think the Ricardos will be perfect for that sport!  They already love retrieving balls.

The dog park is back on our rotation of fun field trips.