We've known for a long time now that intelligence is not Olive's strength. We make concessions and know that she is as smart as she needs to be. Like Winnie the Pooh, she has some fluff in her head. Olivia Patricia Winniefred. New things are big challenges for a dog with a simple brain.
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| This is a worried dog. |
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| She is separated from her Mama. |
Santa brought me a Braava robot to help sweep and mop the floors. (I've named her Florence) Don't worry, I'll still do it the old fashioned way, but Florence lets me get other stuff done while she tends to the floors.
What that really means is I have more time in Sweet Haven. (Imagine streamers and party horns.)
So, this afternoon, having thrown the sheets in the washer, I started Florence to work in the foyer and headed upstairs to gather the towels for their turn in Mr. Bosch. On a typical day, Olive is my shadow, but with the Young Lady home for winter break, Olive has been dividing her time between us. I was not concerned about my absent shadow until I heard short little distress barks. Turns out our Big Black Beastie was downstairs and the Young Lady and I were upstairs. And Florence was between us.
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| This is Florence. Florence is not very big. She is not loud. She moves slowly. |
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| Obviously, if you are Olive, Florence has an impenetrable force field surrounding her. |
At times like this I can only imagine how our other dogs would have reacted. Bumper would surely have Not Cared. And Patsy? She would either have Killed Florence or figured out which buttons to push to get her sweeping, mopping, or stopped.
“When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.”
A.A. Milne
Love,
Kim
