Patrick loves his green bone. There's nothing like a good chew and then taking it and dropping it on someone's foot to make the day complete.
Patrick has also mastered "fetch", well, when he feels like it, at least. Usually when Big Guy and Big Lady sit down at the kitchen table to play Scrabble@, Patrick calls this game "Scrabble and Bones"... When he was a puppy, it was "Scrabble and Kong", and he once tossed his bright red Kong toy up into the air after all the kibble and peanut butter were out of it, and it went up and bounced all over the table and onto the Scrabble board. Big Guy and Big Lady do not remember who won that game, they were laughing so hard at all the tiles flying all over the kitchen!
But now, he likes to play "Scrabble and Bones". He has two green bones, well, one is mine, but I let him play with it, and so, Big Guy will ask, "Where is your green bone?" Believe it or not, he knows the difference between his GREEN bones and his BROWN bones. He usually brings one to Big Guy, and then I saddle over to where he is sitting and sit down next to him and then we both get a treat. (Clever trick on my part, huh?) Then Big Guy says, "where is your OTHER GREEN bone?", and then he goes off and finds *my* bone. When those two are up on the kitchen table now next to the Scrabble board, then Big Guy or Big Lady will say, "where is your BROWN bone?" and Patrick will wander off, looking for it. When he brings it to the table and does a proper give, then I go over and sit down near him and both of us get treats again. Then Big Lady will say, "Patrick, where is your OTHER BROWN bone?" and sure enough, he wanders off and brings it to her. Then we get more treats again.
Occasionally, Patrick is really keen to get lots of treats for both of us, and will bring the four bones, two balls (ORANGE ball, and GREEN ball), and maybe a kitchen towel which he sneaks off the counter, or maybe an envelope or a piece of newspaper from the "leave-it" box (Big Guy says it's our temporary recycling-box), and sometimes there's just all kinds of things on the table next to the Scrabble board that we earn treats for. Then, whenever there's a break in the action, Big Guy or Big Lady will go and take the four bones and the two balls and walk them to some obscure place in the house, maybe down a hallway, or a bathroom, or in the study, and we start the fetching all over again.
It is no wonder that Big Guy and Big Lady often forget what they are doing when they play Scrabble in the kitchen on any given night. And I, as his agent, get all these treats with little or no effort on my part!
