Silly Soccer Ball Feat

Boston Terriers are the most silly bugger of all the canine breeds. They jump around like they were cats. They think they are far bigger and pugilistic then their size denotes. When they grow up along with children, they mature faster and come to believe that they too are people just the older and protective siblings.

Rocky had such a childhood, if childhood can be used to describe the wacky way he became an "adult." Actually he seems to have found the secret of perpetual energy and youth. I suspect that somewhere he has a portrait of himself hidden in some corner that has impressed on it all the sins he committed.

At one year old he swam to Ten Pound Island that is situated 1/4 mile off shore of this seaside community. This was done on Halloween when the water was far too cold for a comfortable swim. The Coast Guard got the report of something moving around on the spit of rock out on the oceanside of the peninsula. The Coasties rescued him and wrapped him in a Mylar thermal blanket to warm his shivering body. Needless to say, Rocky was reunited with his Twins whom he normally treated as his boys.

The boys are grown now and rocky remains at home in what is supposed to be his retirement years. Not one to be marginalized he continues to confound everyone with how he manages to do the things he does. Every so often he manages to sneak out for a swim or to gladhand the patrons at the neighborhood restaurant across the street. He is always welcome and well behaved when weaving in among the tables and people feet. The waiters and waitresses shoo after him in their half-hearted obligation to send him on his way.

Just the other day Rocky confounded me with his latest feat. This photo is of him and my son's soccer ball on my bed. At first glance one would say "so what, that is not anything special." But the reality of the feat is that my bedroom is in a loft above the kitchen and there is only a narrow curved stairway that leads up there. The slope is greater than 45 degrees and has open risers. Now remember dogs don't have thumbs. He has no way to hold a ball that big in his paws and walk notwithstanding going up the steps. The little open frame ball-like object in front of him would be no challenge for him at all. But a soccer ball that is nearly as big as himself is yet another thing altogether.

Remember that part about the swim on Halloween? We still have not found out how he got away. There were no chutes dug under the fences. The chain link parts are six feet high. The wooden pickets were all in place and also six feet high. We haven't been clever enough to figure it out and Rocky is being tight-lipped about it. Except of course when he is being a silly bugger with a warm tongue and a body wiggle.