Not a whole lot happened this past week, up until sunday night.

We all went to the almost-brother-in-laws place to eat supper with his
girlfriend and him. They have a dog, Lara, a 2 1/2 year old GSD/doberman
mix. Beautifully happy bouncy girl.

And friendly. *Very* friendly. Moogli spent most of the time hidingout
underneath the tables out back, weaving in between our legs, trying to
get away from her. About halfway through supper, a little dog somewhere
in the area started barking, and Lara started running back and forth
along the edge of the yard. She would run, jump off the deck, go to the
back corner of the yard, and run back. After a couple of times, Moogli
felt confident enough to run after her. Then he realized that she was
coming back. Now she is bigger than Moogli, big enough that he could walk
underneath her and not have to duck. (Granted, that is not all that hard
for Moogli). So for a while, this went on. They established a kind of
stalemate/understanding. SHe would walk around and under the tables to
try to get close enough to sniff him, and he would try to get away. If
she cornered him, he would let her sniff for 5-10 seconds, and then he
would shrink back, show his teeth, air snap, and then bark at her. She
would back off, usually at the air snap stage, and the cycle would repeat
again.

After Moogli's mom left, Tara came and dropped a destroyed, slimey tennis
ball in my lap/ I started throwing it and she started returning it. She
is well trained, enough to know that "in my hand" means in my hand! After
a while, I got tired and ignored her. By this time, Moogli had had a
chance to wander a bit further and had found a piece of tennis ball that
she had ripped off. She noticed what he was doing, and wanted to see what
was up. She got a bit close a bit fast, and Moogli bypassed all of the
previous steps and started barking at her. She was startled and backed up
a step. So he barked at her again. So she started barking back (low-
pitched, loud woof as opposed to Moogli's loud bark) So for a couple of
minutes, there is this little barking/conversation going back and forth.
Hilarious.

It is getting a bit loud, so I grab a ball and throw it. On her way out,
Moogli follows her to the edge of the decjk. When she jumps up, she goes
around him, with the ball in her mouth. Now Moogli had started to like
chewed apart tennis balls, so he wants this one. So he starts to chase
her around the table. Round and round they go, Moogli barking whenever he
gets to a certain corner. Since deck tables are kinda small, the barking
was pretty much constant. It was also pretty funny. The deck was a bit
slick so Moogli, running as fast as he can and cutting corners to try to
catch her, was doing very much the running on ice type of thing, while
Lara is just trotting due to her long legs.

At some point in time, she decided to run after him. Unfortunately, his
top speed is much slower than hers, so she caught up pretty quickly,
which resulted in more barking and snapping from Moogli. Sortof a be
careful you big clumsy oaf. After which he would run and hide under a
chair or on someone's lap.

A couple of minutes later, it would start over again.

Moogli never really got along with her, but for a first meeting I think
it went pretty well. With more exposure to her, I think that he would
lose a lot of his nervousness around her.

Marcel

PS, they also have two boa constrictors, 1 Male, 1 female. Very cool
snakes. Once their basement is renovated, they want to try to mate them.

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Marcel Beaudoin & Moogli

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'Dogs must sleep in the middle of the
bed. The corners are not as comfy.'
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