Christmas came early. Sort of.

Christmas came early.  But this is one of those weird gifts.  It's for us dogs, but it makes our human happy.  And if it makes her happy, well, we'll go along with it.  Mind you, it's a bit like giving a 4 year old some clothing as a gift.  What kid gets excited about new underwear?  So what dog gets excited about a new collar?  It's not like we can see the collar on ourselves.  Unless we look in a mirror... And even then - with us PONs it's really hard to see our collars.

Anyway,  we have LOADS of collars in this house.  Collars for every life stage.  BUT - we didn't have collars with our names on them.  And my human always feared that if one of us took off and got lost, how would anyone know who we were?  Never mind the fact that we all have bionic microchips that can be scanned to identify us.  But let's face it - most homes don't have one of those scanners.  IF someone found us - they wouldn't know right away where we belonged.  And for those who are wondering - yes we are licensed and we have tags, but we never wear the tags.   Quite possibly because the way that Frodo and Elroy wrestle and chew on each other, they would likely rip them off one another.  So we "needed" new collars.  Sure we did. And she found these lovely colorful leather colors on-line.
https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/223358696/dog-collar-personalized-leather?ref=shop_home_active_14

The collars arrived in the mail and we got all excited until we realized there was no food involved in this gift.  Frodo got a mint green one, Elroy got purple and I got red. Frodo and I plan to swap them when she leaves for work.  Just to confuse anyone who finds us.  Not that Frodo will ever get lost - Velcro dog sticks close to home.  The Friendly Giant DOES like to wander into the woods - dragging his long line behind him.  But my human is always RIGHT behind him.  He's actually a LOT more brave than we were at his age.  Except for yesterday morning.

My human took him out for his "quick pee" when he got up - and it was dark out at 5 AM.  He, of course, was on a leash and he went on the lawn to pee.  And then he did something that startled my human.  He began to look into the bushes and growl.  And then he let out a bark.  A mean bark.   And he stared and jumped backwards.  And he again growled.  He had never done this before.  Oh.  Except for the time he growled at his reflection in the deck door.  Still -my human had no idea what could be lurking in the bushes, so she dragged him back inside. 

When the sun came up, she went out to see if there were any traces of anything in the bushes.  And there WAS an answer.  It was a dog.  A very scary dog.  Who had been invisible before - hidden by the leaves of a hosta - but who had now appeared as the leaves are dying.  Check him out.

Good one Elroy.  Good one.   I think I'll get YOU some night goggles for Christmas...

Ya gotta love him!