Squirrel Chasing and Other Things (open)

[maxine]

Max had finally learned how to open doors all by herself. Now that her front paws were more like Master’s, she could do things she couldn’t do when she had just been a dog. She could open doors and….well that was all she had figured out how to do at the moment. And those round knobs were still a little confusing, but other than that she had mastered how to open doors with her front paws. And she was just so excited about this new revelation that she went around opening things. But then she ran out of things to open…

…until she came to the front door that is. And Master wasn’t home. She wasn’t usually allowed out of the house by herself when Master wasn’t home. Master didn’t want her to get into trouble, but she really wanted to open doors now that she knew how. Max cocked her head to one side, seriously considering the door. And then she lost all concentration when she heard a squirrel outside the door. And it was calling her and she wanted to play with the squirrel. So she bounded to the door and opened it, just in time to see another person approaching.

[Deleted]

"Rook! Oh my God, you crazy thing!"

Now look, in spite of what the scene that was playing out right now (ie, Della desperately trying to hold Rook back before he crashed into the tree that the squirrel he had decided he had to catch had just escaped to), Della was pretty damn good with Rook. She had trained him very well since he was a puppy, and seeing as she had to deal with puppies on a regular basis at her job and tended to devour every book on every subject she took an interest in, she felt like she knew what she was doing. Generally speaking, this proved to be correct. Rook was very well behaved, and apart from being perhaps too hyper at times, (and what self respecting dog didn't have those moments?) she was happy with how well trained he was.

Apparently, however, every good kid had their very bad days, because Rook had been running like this for the past five minutes, and Della had tried every trick in the book. When the hell did Rook get so strong anyway? What was even worse was that just when they were close enough to the tree, this little blonde girl just decided to head out, and Rook, already being extra hyper, all but jumped towards her, leaving Della to try to calm what could potentially be a terrified girl.

"Sorry! He just got excited by one of those squirrels, he's very friendly, doesn't bite at all," she assured the girl that Rook was, as if to prove a point, going from sniffing to eagerly licking the girl's hand in about five seconds flat. "See? Sorry if that scared you at all."

[maxine]

Max loved new people! New people were so exciting and new and smelled like new things! And they were exciting because sometimes they were nice and liked dogs. And sometimes they liked cats. And sometimes (and this was Max’s favorite) people had other dogs with them! Other dogs were her most favorite thing ever because what dog didn’t like other dogs? Other dogs were so much fun!

And so, when Max opened the door, she saw the new person, which was very exciting, but that the new person had a dog was even more exciting! Max bounced excitedly and barked happily. And the other dog was a friendly dog too and came right over. Max bounced excitedly around Rook and if she had a tail it would have wagged happily and excitedly.

When the person talked to her Max looked up excitedly at the girl. “Max not scared. Max dog too. Max like chase squirrels. Fun to chase.” Then she looked down at Rook. “Play with Max? Chase squirrels?” She was still bouncing because it was very exciting. New dogs were very exciting because they were new friends and new friends were very exciting!