The flower bed behind my sliding gate at the back needed attention. The soil inside came from the ground. It was dug out when the back porch was renovated years ago. With a small shovel, I loosen the soil and mixed them up with fallen leaves swept up from the garden. When I trim my hedges, the trimmings go inside as well. It will be months before the bed is ready.
That mutt on the right was exceedingly curious. She came close to sniff out the soil and made a nuisance of herself by nudging me all over. I ignored her. When that failed, I had to push her away. That was before my shovel hit something hard in the soil.
Yup!
Buried bones, All three of them. Who could have buried them there?
"XENA!" I yelled.
She came at once. She isn't typically responsive, let me assure you but this time, she came at once, staring as she did, at the bones on my shovel.
I gave her an earful, pointing at the buried bones and looking suitably disgusted. While she did not argue, her eyes betrayed the turmoil within. In full view, I made the elaborate ritual of transferring the bones into a garbage bag and throwing them into the bin.
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She gave me that "I-can't-believe-you're-doing-this." look but stayed her tongue.
Someone gave us a bag of bones recently. They came from a roast lamb. I took two chunks out into the garden this morning. Venus and Xena appeared like genies from a bottle.
If you think I'm going to hand those bones over to them without any pomp or ritual, you're grossly mistaken. This is another opportunity to tell them who's the boss.
The ritual began with the spreading of newspapers on a suitable area in the garden. Can't have them nibbling at those oily chunks anywhere they want, can I? They were then invited to sit before their respective newspaper, nice and proper, like a lady should. Then and only then, the meat chunks were placed in the middle of the newspaper.
Years of training paid off for Venus. She knelt on the newspaper to nibble at the meaty chunks between her spread-out forelegs.
The same cannot be said of Xena. At opportune moments, she grasped the bone between her teeth intending to chew them somewhere else. Now I had to tell her who made the rules around here so I tried to remove the bone from her clutch. She growled. That's the warning sign.
Possession aggression.
A timid dog can and will turn aggressive if you try to remove anything from its grasp. With Venus and Ginger, we've gone beyond that stage. I can remove any bone right from between their teeth without an "uprising."
Xena, on the other hand, had an independent spirit and wasn't about to submit to anyone without putting up a fight.
So we have an impasse, Xena and me. I won't have her moving the bone away from the paper and she won't have me interfering with how or where she eat it.
At this point, Venus is watching us.
I tried to pry the bone from her with a twig. A louder growl. She was getting annoyed - and dangerous.
Water scoop in one hand, I tried again to pry the bone from between her teeth. When she turned aggressive, I "watered" her down. It worked. She dropped the bone and was immediately submissive. The bone was returned to the middle of the newspaper. She was invited to go to it, which she did. At the next opportune moment, she again attempted to run away with the bone. I was ready for that, water scoop in hand. After about 5 to 6 attempts, she finally finished the bone on the newspaper.
Venus never left hers.
Stage 1 completed.
