Riley's leap

i've bragged to you often enough about riley's great ability to run up the sides of trees, levitate onto the tops of beds and walls, and leap like a gazelle from a standing position.

this morning when i left for work he was in the back yard in one of his new favorite hiding places--behind the little wire fence, in the hostas. he leaps over that fence beautifully, so i decided to capture it on video. i am just learning to work the video part of my camera, and i need a lot of practice. he gave me a lot of practice. i shot six different videos, and not once did he move except to lick his privates. mostly, he just sat behind the fence and stared at me.

this evening he did a little better, but i had to use a prop to get him going.

here are parts one and two of Riley's Leap:



Part two, with tennis ball:

Stairs

the other night when i came home from work, only one dog met me at the door--riley. this was alarming; usually, they're both at the door. here's their evening ritual: riley ignores me, goes outside, scans the yard for danger, and then and only then runs back into the house to greet me. boscoe sees me, panics, runs all over the house until he finds a puffy toy, and brings it to me. then and only then does he greet me.

i'm used to this ritual, and so when only one dog was at the door, i was a little alarmed. it's not like them to change their routine.

i went through the whole house, looking for boscoe in all his favorite places: front porch couch: nope. living room couch: nope. big bed upstairs: nope. guest bed upstairs: nope. dog bed in the dining room: nope. (he's a big fan of padded surfaces.)

i pushed down my feelings of panic. i was sure he hadn't escaped, and i was pretty sure that he hadn't suddenly died. if he had, riley would probably have been upset. but where was he?

i went down the basement. and there he was, quietly sitting at the foot of the basement stairs.

he was stuck.

not too many years ago, boscoe hung out in the basement all the time. he liked it down there, especially in the summer, because it's cool and quiet. it's where we keep the giant bag of kibble, too, and sometimes he'd nose around and find a couple of stray kernels.

but getting back out of the basement has always been problematic. he's never been good at stairs--he has short legs, and a kind of stocky body--and the basement stairs are very steep. they've been a challenge since he was a puppy. he'd sit at the bottom and kind of gather himself, and then make a mad dashing sprinting scramble up to the top. it took a lot out of him.

and then, last summer, he just gave up on them.

now, he usually avoids the basement, and if he does end up down there for some reason (chased by a fly, usually), he can't get back out. this wouldn't be a big deal except for the fact that it dovetails with another one of his phobias: being carried. boscoe hates being picked up. so when he's stuck in the basement--as he was again today--we have two choices. we can either leave him down there for the rest of his life, or we can go down and get him and carry him up the stairs. he flails and makes violent swimming motions with his legs and you're trying to keep your balance on the very narrow steep stairs and remembering to duck halfway up because there's a really low overhang (really really low for doug), and it's all very tricky. usually there's a minor catastrophe at the top, or near the top, when his swimming gyrations cause you to stumble, or drop him, and he ends up splayed out on the kitchen floor.

today i think he was chased down there by the wind. it was a very blustery day, and the wind blew the bedroom door shut. that slam is usually enough to send him into the basement--that and, as i mentioned, flies, which are the big torment of his life.

so when doug came home and found no boscoe waiting at the back door, he figured out pretty quickly where he was and headed on down to get him. but boscoe's smart, and he figured out that doug was going to pick him up. so boscoe ran into the far back corner of the basement, in the laundry room.

thus began a delicate mutual herding operation; doug trying to herd boscoe out of the laundry room and back toward the stairs, and boscoe trying to herd doug back into the laundry room where they would apparently live out the rest of their lives together. (hey, it could work. the beer fridge is down there.)

doug's IQ is a few points higher than a border collie's, and he won. at the foot of the stairs, he picked boscoe up.

don't pick me up! boscoe hollered, but to no avail.

up the steps they went. doug ducked his head. boscoe flailed and swam. doug made it to the landing, made the turn....and boscoe panicked and swam and flailed and doug kind of stumbled and boscoe ended up splayed out awkwardly on the kitchen floor.

and then he got up, shook himself, and trotted off to find a puffy toy so he could properly welcome doug home.

at the kitchen doorway, he paused. a word of advice, genius, he said to doug. if you don't want to have to go through this again, for god's sake, shut the basement door!

not bad advice, actually. those border collies are pretty smart.

*****UPDATE******
here's why we can't close the damn door. riley has chosen the basement landing as his newest napping spot.