Jack has accepted puppy Pepper fairly well. He's not grumpy. Lets Pepper jump on him. Pepper's favorite wrestling move is to jump on Jack's shoulder, and wrap his front legs around Jack's neck. Jack doesn't growl or snap. He slowly walks away, dragging Pepper's back legs along the porch until Pepper lets go.
When food is involved, Jack doesn't mess around. While he's never been nippy or greedy when being handed a treat, he now wastes no time in gobbling it up. If I toss it on ground, no more sniffing and looking at me like, "This is all you've got?" Nope. Now Jack grabs it and eats it fast. If Pepper comes sniffing around, he'll growl. Fair enough. Manners must be learned.
Jack spends his days on the front porch. When I leave for town, he trots around to meet me at the side porch. I assume Pepper has been spending days with Jack. On Saturday, Jack came to see me off. Without Pepper! I quizzed him as to Pepper's whereabouts, but no response. Finally Pepper came running around from the front porch, to snuffle around the crumbs Jack left from his stale bread. Of course I had a small piece for Pepper. He sniffed at it, and went back to Jack's area. Growl. I showed Pepper the dry food in the self-feeder. He looked at me like I was crazy.
Anyhoo... on Sunday morning, I heard a commotion on the front porch. Thumping. Like when Jack or Pepper toy around with Farmer H's ceramic/resin animal figures. I heard some barks. They didn't sound like Jack. Didn't sound like Pepper's yips. I wondered if there was a neighbor dog in the yard. I never see them, but Farmer H does. The barking stopped, but I still heard some gamboling.
I peeped out the clear little square in the patterned glass window beside the front door. I could see down below, where one of Farmer H's figurines had blown over a month or so ago, and broken. In true Farmer H style, he scraped the pieces together, and just left it! I could see that now he had put the pieces into a box. And just left it. Baby steps...
Now Jack was chewing on that box! It's a cardboard box, used to bring home items from Save A Lot. Jack had ripped several chunks off one side, and was struggling at the corner. Pepper watched, hopping back and forth, to get a better view. Jack coolly gave him the side-eye, to make sure he was watching. If Pepper tried to get closer to the box, Jack growled.
Pepper ran down the steps and under the picket fence I despise. Well. That was not part of Jack's plan. He stopped chewing on the box. Walked to the top of the steps and looked into the yard. I could see his nose twitching. I figure he was looking for his audience. Then I saw Pepper romping along the brick sidewalk. Jack turned and came back to his chewing box, ignoring Pepper.
Pepper was so proud! Prancing along with a foot-long piece of dried-up yucca leaf in his mouth. It looked like frayed rope. He started up the steps. Tripped a couple times, landing his chin on the next step. Then he was at the top, mouthing his yucca leaf. Jack turned to look. Pepper dropped it and went to the box, sniffing around. Pepper seemed perplexed. THIS was all? He attempted a timid bite, then walked away from the box.
Jack is kind of a Tom Sawyer, making Pepper believe that chewing on an old box is as great as whitewashing a fence.
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