like a weasel or a ferret

It's hard to get a good picture of Gus. He's always trying to get away from JoJo and her ball-squeaking moves. Life is intense for him and he's always looking over his shoulder for her or keeping an eye out for a cat to chase.

Or, maybe it's just that his body is a weird combination of breeds. His head always looks tiny on his terribly long body.

He's got these tiny little legs and sadly for him, he doesn't weigh much, so he's always getting pushed around. But that tail--who couldn't love that tail?

And there's always JoJo chasing after him...

He doesn't ever--EVER!--relax. It's like his body is always on alert, ready to spring like a weasel or a ferret.

I know about ferrets because one day at our old house, I heard our three dogs barking madly out back. It wasn't their usual, "Mom, somebody's on the skywalk" bark or their "There's a dog on a leash out front" bark. It was more frantic and demanded immediate attention. As I went out back, I saw Scout, our chow, totally focused on something that was darting about in the grass. The two collies, Ginger and Dollie were leaping up and over and around Scout, barking, yipping, moaning, and all of the while, Scout was doing his best to stay on task, which task was attempting to catch a ferret that had wandered into our back yard. The ferret was making this clicking noise, which I interpreted as scared ferret noise, and I was certain Scout was going to get that ferret or else. The collies, sweet girls that they were, didn't understand that as a team they could have easily caught the ferret. They thought the game was "let's trip up Scout" or maybe "hey Scoutie, whatcha doin?" Thanks to the collies, the ferret made it safely under the fence to freedom.

Gus reminds me of that ferret, darting about, making odd sounds, wandering into situations that have the high potential for a bad ending.

Unlike ferrets though, Gus is cute. Especially when he stands on his hind legs doing his very best prairie dog impression. Not that I can catch that on film.

It's a good thing for Gus that he's so adorable.

Shoulda made sure the box lids were on tight. Had I worn these shoes yet? Yes, for about five minutes at the store. They fit beautifully. And those are the red boots I wore three times.

You may all agree with me now that the shoe/boot destruction thing truly stinks.