Imp 1. Guest 0.

Greetings blog readers. Frodo here for your reading pleasure today.

Today is the 25th of March and the birthday of the singer, Elton John. Apparently the celebrity is a huge animal lover and he has been owned by a number of dogs in his life. In 2018, he was saddened by the loss of his 14 year old Cocker Spaniel, Arthur. And reportedly, last summer during the pandemic, he decided to add not one but two pandemic puppies to his family. Two German Shepherds. Good for him and happy birthday. In this household, one pandemic puppy was quite enough. Speaking of whom, today is the imp’s 11th month birthday. Heaven help us all in living through to his first birthday. He is no doubt already sending out invitations to his party. The lad is in a continual state of frenzy and his middle name should be chaos.

Even yesterday, after a momentary state of what appeared to be sanity, he almost knocked out a guest…

Her Highness’ friend Marg came by to kindly help Her Highness with some garden work. Because Her Highness’ hand is still in recovery mode- and she really should not be doing heavy lifting or excessive actions with that hand, Marg came by to help dig up a section of a garden bed. The bed has been partly taken over by weeds and an overly obnoxious perennial. Even dog pee has not been effective at eradicating the unwanted plants. The top layer of soil needed to be removed along with the weeds, so that different plants can be put in that area. Again.

Marg was digging and Her Highness was emptying the wheelbarrow. Meanwhile, the imp and I were shouting out instructions from in the house. I finally gave up, but the imp felt it was his duty to share his opinion. Nonstop. Continually.

Finally Her Highness decided she would simply let him out so he could see Marg, and then perhaps he could stop proving his ongoing commentary.

Her Highness let him out and he went right to Marg. He shouted his greetings and then sat right next to her while she gave him a good pat on the head. He then decided he should lie down right where Marg was digging to supervise her work.

Her Highness instructed him to move and he ran off to roll in whatever remaining small snow piles that he could find. So all in all- he was very well behaved. When he began cruising the garage, looking to access the dog food bins, he was ushered back into the house.

When the work was finished, the gardeners came into the house for a snack and a beverage. And it is upon the entry of humans that the imp goes completely mad. He gets SO excited, he doesn’t know which way to turn. So he essentially turns every which way. And he leaps. Like a frog on fire. Her Highness opened the door and went to take the Coyote by the collar so he would not use the open door as an opportunity to go AWOL. Meanwhile, I was barking out my greeting to Marg. And JUST as Marg reached down to pet yours truly, the imp literally flew over me, clocking Marg right in the cheek with his head. Her Highness was mortified- it happened so quickly. And he had been SO well behaved outside. But, his multiple personality traits exploded and his Tasmanian Devil alter ego emerged. Thankfully, Marg left without any bruises but it was not a good thing to happen.

Her Highness was NOT amused, and the imp found himself sequestered in his crate. While we can laugh at his antics now, it REALLY is no laughing matter. He is officially entering sit-stay boot camp. He actually CAN sit and stay – but not when guests arrive. He will be doing some serious training – and willing participants who wish to help out will be compensated for their participation. But they won’t get to keep the armor. Should you wish to help out, contact Her Highness and bring a copy of your up to date health insurance. We are not joking…We can only hope with training AND maturity that he MAY begin to calm down. Personally, I’m skeptical.

That’s the latest imp story. He never fails to provide us with material. Now I must go on my constitutional. Alone. We all need respite from him for at least a few minutes every day. As they say, good thing he is cute….

Have a good one. Peace and paws up. Stay safe.