Yesterday Simon turned 10 years old. He spent the day playing in the yard with Ferris and me, running after sticks and generally jumping around. There was a little snow on the ground and the sun was shining while he lay on the wet grass and chewed on a stick he won from Ferris. He loves soppy gross stuff so laying in the yard was absolute bliss. Most of the rest of the day he enjoyed his second favorite passtime, sleep (on the couch with lots of pillows and mink blanket). His first favorite of course is swimming. When Joe came home from work that evening we gave Simon his presents; one was an enormous rawhide chew and the other a dog cookie in the shape of a cupcake complete with frosting. He loved the little cookie and ate it immediately. Rather than chew it, he guarded his rawhide on the livingroom floor. There was no way he was going to let it out of his sight. Ferris chewed on a normal sized rawhide; he gets a little jealous so rather than start a fight he got his own rawhide. This morning Simon still wanted to guard his gigantic rawhide and even growled at me when I grabbed it. That didn't last too long, he knew he was wrong because all of his hair stood up and he cowered. Simon gave himself a little time-out; he left his big rawhide while he finished off Ferris's. So now that he is ten he can take his time in the yard, sleep as long as he feels like, get massages after walks, have his very own foam filled bed in our bedroom and chew his rawhide or just guard it if he wants to.
