We are taking care of Jan & Rocky's dog Sage while they are away on vacation, and every day I shuttle Sagemo (as Jan affectionately calls her) back and forth from her house to ours and back again. Today I brought my two beasts with me per the usual morning routine; let my dogs in the yard, go inside to give Sage her pill, bring Sage outside. My dogs can be a little bit intimidating for this sweet, mellow little senior dog. She tends to sit on the porch if they are in her back yard, so I usually take them away and give her the yard for herself. Today we wandered outside, and Sage continued on into her front yard instead of coming back home with me. Ok, I figured she needs to be outside for a while, so I call her to come into the back yard again so I can leave her there and go back home to start breakfast. She doesn't know me very well and I'm not her pack, so usually I have to bribe her with food to get her to come with me anywhere. Today is no exception, she isn't listening and keeps wandering further out in the front. I quickly drag Cody with me (Soo always following not far off) and run to the side gate and call Sage to go into the yard from there. She looks up at me, but is not so inclined. I'm about to let my dogs into the yard and then go and get her, when Soo alerts. Standing at my side, she zones in on Sage and gives her a "woof". When Sage has no reaction, my faithful Soo charges after her, "woofs" at her again and gives her a sniffing nudge in the behind. Soo then trots back to my side when I call her back - since I don't understand this dog's real intention. Moments later, just as I'm about to wrangle my "horses" into the yard so I can personally show Sage where she needs to be, that little lady starts toward me and goes right in the yard. Well, how about that? Soo really is amazingly smart!
At breakfast afterward, I tell Chris all about what happened. I marvel that it is possible that such wonderful goodness can also be within the same space as her terrible badness. Chris gives us his sage take on this phenomenon; he says:
"The faculties that make you very good are also the faculties that can make you very bad. You never heard of an evil idiot." I guess that sums up our fantastic/terrible Soo.
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| Soo with the evidence all over her face: who else could have gotten the pantry door open and taken out a bag of pancake batter and tried to eat it? |
