Today Chloe persuaded me to let her out to graze the lawn.
She stayed out there til dinner time. As I was fixing the feed, she came over, considered going in the gate, thought better of it, and wandered off again.
After setting out the other feed dishes, I planned to lure Chloe back into the field with her bucket. Not going to work - she preferred the lawn. So I put her bucket down inside the open gate and proceeded to try and push her through in a very slapstick fashion - me pushing her tail end, only to have her turn around and face me. I put my arms around her neck in an attempt to lead her, but she ended up leading me.
After a minute or two of Laurel-and-Hardy shenanigans, it occurred to me that Chloe was actually enjoying this. She was making no attempt to leave the scene, offered a trick spin or two, and seemed to like pushing back when I pushed her.
At the moment when the thought occurred to me that this might be a fun game, Chloe marched off toward her open gate, allowed me to deflect a last-minute attempt to return to the lawn, and settled down to her dinner bucket.
She sounds one step ahead of the game!
ReplyDeleteI'm imagining Griffin doing something similar to me this summer. He loves the grass just outside his pasture. I do not mind letting him graze on it for a bit - but I imagine if it were up to him he would happily remain there for an entire day (and then some). I know that I will have to come up with some creative ideas to motivate him away from the tempting "gourmet" grass. I have a few months yet to devise a plan :-). Chloe sounds like quite a character!! :-)
ReplyDeleteChloe will come when I become certain. In other words, I can't just decide, "Oh, it's time for her to come in now." It has to get the point of "Chloe - young lady! I'm serious - you've got to come NOW!" And then she'll just look at me sweetly, like, "Why didn't you say so in the first place?"
ReplyDeleteChloe has always taken care of me, even in the bad old days when I used to make her do stuff and she was angry. She is always self-contained, and poised, and I'm sure she's way ahead of me in everything! Although I have absolute confidence in her, she's the one who treads on my feet the most. Followed by Bridget. George, who is the most irascible, just doesn't on my toes at all.
ReplyDelete