En Garde!

You might think that we live pampered lives. But, there's a lot about our day-to-day activities that would disabuse you of that notion. Oh, sure, we have our meals prepared for us (by the world's best chef: our mama!), and we usually get carried to our dining area (don't want to overuse our legs ... we need them for chasing things that move outside our window), and we get an unlimited supply of belly rubs.

Interestingly, our responsibilities around the house are well summarized by Isaac Newton, who must have had a dog: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The "action" is that we get lots of good food and can spend most of the day in idle thought (for Rozi, that means wondering about when and what the next meal will be; for Izzi it means wondering when she'll be able to attack anyone who comes near our mama).

The "reaction" is to be guard dogs. And, that means a couple of things.

First of all, we have to be alert to anything in or outside of our house that makes any amount of noise, and then alert everyone in the house to it. So, if a loud truck drives by when the window is open, we need to let our mama and anyone else in the house know about the potential danger. Also, if the person who bangs around upstairs drops something, we need to be sure to alert our mama to be attentive to the possible risk (although it's usually just a cell phone hitting the floor ... what a klutz that guy can be!).

Also, we have to be sure to tell our mama when anything (anything!) moves outside of the windows. Cars. People. Other doggies. Leaves. The wind. Anything. We often have to keep letting her know until the intruder(s) go away, which we are pretty sure is 'cause they're a-scared of us.

But, one of the more challenging and yet important roles that we play in the house is to guard and protect our treats. From each other.

We sometimes get treats for being "good girls" and we're always happy that we're being so good, and also we mostly like getting treats. So, when we are being really good girls and get a treat, we have to think ahead. It's sort of like how a grandmaster handles a chess match. Do you make a move now for the immediate gratification of it (the "trading pawns" idea), or do you protect what's important to you now and defer that gratification, knowing that you'll be even happier when you finally get to enjoy your victory (the "checkmate" idea)? Can you tell that our mama is making us watch "The Queen's Gambit", even though there are no puppies in it?

And, so when we get our treats, Izzi usually digs in and gives the treat a lick or chew or two, then hangs on to it and enjoys it for a few hours or days.

But, Rozi has a different approach: she just guards it.

When Rozi gets her treat, she trots around the house with it in her mouth, happy that she gets a treat, but worried her sister will take it. Instead of chewing on the treat, she puts it down somewhere and guards it. Sometimes, the place she puts it is pretty public, like the carpet or the stairs or in the middle of the floor. Other times, she hides it under the couch or in the little space next to the couch, or on the other side of the couch. As you can tell, the couch is an important component of any hiding strategy for Rozi.

And then she just watches it. Her goals are twofold: (1) make sure that her sister does not eat the treat that Rozi was given (2) don't eat the treat for a really long time.

And, she's really good at it! She will occasionally move the treat from the couch area to the stairs, hoping that she's doing it without being noticed. Or, she'll walk up the stairs with it in her mouth but since both "walking up stairs" and "holding a treat in your mouth" take a lot of energy, the treat often falls on the stairs and has to be retrieved by her butler, who does a meh job of it. Good help is hard to find.

You may be asking what the point of all of this is. Why guard something that you're not going to enjoy?

Delayed gratification!

And, then, of course, resting after a long day of guarding.

Yip, Arf, Yip, Arf,

Izzi & Rozi