The Tales of Lilly, The Mud Life Dog
Birthday Girl
by Karen Lee Turner
The big number on the page may give you a clue to the age Lilly turned on the 4th of September. Yes, she is now six, middle-aged in dog years. If the experts are correct she's 42-ish in human years and, like me once I hit my forties, she has aches and pains. When she has a mad run around with her mates she feels it later, but, unlike me,she doesn't let it put her off doing the mad zoomies (not that I've ever done mad zoomies). The consequences of the exhuberance is that later in the day, after a few hours of happy snoozing, when she gets up she does a hop-a-long routine involving a lifted leg, sad eyes and sly glances towards her treat jar of bangers. Strangely, when said treat is released into her mouth, the hopping vanishes as she runs off to eat her sausage on her bed. Obviously this is proof that with age has come wisdom - the wisdom to know how to play us. She knows exactly what she wants and whose button to push to get it. For Damian it's the 'Stare of Devotion'. This involves staring intently at him from across the room until he looks - she would definitely win the no-blink game against the best in the world. If the stare doesn't get her desired result, she moves closer. Like the weeping angels in Doctor Who, you never actually see her move, she just gets closer, then closer still, until she has her head in his crotch and big brown puppy eyes burning into his soul. Damian is powerless to resist (I mean look at that face, could you?), and her goal, usually a walk or possibly a sneaky chip, is achieved.
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THE MUD LIFE MAGAZINE