Slicker than a weasel

[lizblackdog]

Today my baby niece Maya met my dogs for the first time. Mum finally got a car seat installed so she can drive Maya around when she babysits - so she brought her to visit, and we all went to the park.

Spike was utterly awesome, as I knew he would be. My dogs may suck in a variety of situations but they are reliably good with small children, and they adore them. The evil bugger fawned over Maya beautifully and oh so gently. He showed off his mad dancing and tree climbing skillz to Maya's amusement, and he impressed my Mum by responding accurately to my "Where's Maya?" command within three minutes of seeing her for the first time.

...It's a no brainer for a Border Collie. Squish can find a ball on command but he's not capable of generalising that to finding anything else he happens to know the name of. Spike can do that easily. He did not know Maya's name, but he knew she wasn't Granny or Ball or Squish so he figured lying at her feet when I said "where's Maya?" was a safe bet. I love my clever dick dog.

Squish is not clever in quite the same way, but he is very adorable and happy and has long silky ears and made Maya giggle a lot by covering her in happy dog kisses at every opportunity. I love my silly spotted dog.

...My niece is pretty damn cool too. She's - what, two and a half now? The same age as Naamah cat, anyhow, they were born within a week of each other. She's old enough to hold conversations with and she speaks clearly and doesn't shriek. And she loves dogs and cats. And now that Mum can drive her around I should see a lot more of her - this makes me happy.

Comments

Doggie trip

[daffodilblonde.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed it Liz, I had a great time too, and Maya was tickled pink by the dogs - she loved getting doggie kisses from Squish, and she was amazed at Spike trying to climb a tree! I shall definitely be using their carseat again to bring her over as she is actually now turning into a real person! Her mom is upset about her new glasses, she is so long-sighted that they are like bottle tops and make her eyes look HUGE! We saw this afternoon the most ENORMOUS slug, and it amused her that the slug was chomping into the bread that we'd just put out for the birds!!

Re: Doggie trip

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

AUGH SLUG!!!

I adored her little glasses. Cute as a fuckin' button. And won't she grow out of the longsighted thing or something?

...I know you told me all about her eye issues but you don't expect me to remember, do you?

Re: Doggie trip

[daffodilblonde.livejournal.com]

The dox are hoping the glasses will preclude the need for an operation on her eyes, but I guess it'll take time. They didn't realise just how long-sighted she actually is. But how do they tell anyway with a 2 yr old? At the minute they use pix of animals etc at various distances to figure it all out. She was also excited that we saw a slow-worm in her garden yesterday - we christened it Lowly Worm of course! Her mother is aghast because she hates all things of nature, e.g. slugs and snails (and puppy dog tails) and frogs which are also in their garden... but I shall pursue my efforts to educate her in the finer things of life - at least with the new glasses she can actually SEE the spiders and their webs!

[mcsassypants.livejournal.com]

Oh yay! I'm glad your niece got some quality doggie and aunt time. Every kid needs quality dog time.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

They totally do. And my dogs love them some quality kid time. I hope this is going to happen often.

[mcsassypants.livejournal.com]

and I hope that there will be pictures!

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

Maya's mother is unwilling to have pictures of her online - which I respect - and so I can't. Also, I forgot to take any.

[beebarf.livejournal.com]

Toddler nieces are great - although mine had a major strop in the supermarket on Wednesday and threw herself on the floor and wouldn't move. I just stood leaning on a pillar and got my book out...not the reaction she was expecting, so after a chapter, all was well, as her attention span is shorter than mine, and I didn't see the pouty face again (which makes me laugh anyway...)

Niece loves animals and can identify loads, and make all the appropriate noises. Her current favourites though are sharks!

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

HA. I have never seen Maya do that - but I have a vivid memory of her mother doing it on many occasions before she turned five.

[yesididit.livejournal.com]

i love when dogs are great with small kids. puppy, who jumps up on people, has never once tried to jump on a kid. he has knocked over a couple with his big swishy tail (how do you get away from that!) but he's really good at being careful around them. i'm so glad spike and squish got to meet and play well with maya.