A Breakthrough

There was a glimmer of hope today that at some point in the near future, our lives would reach something like the normal we used to know. Monkey was able to go to work for several hour stretches, leaving Parker happily snoozing in his crate. This certainly brightened her spirits, which were sagging a bit after her tumultuous birthday-less birthday weekend (although she did have a few well-wishers who tried to make it festive, Parker was not terribly cooperative). Even a slight accident by Parker (completely (as always) our fault...he hinted...but how much can one dog pee in a twenty minute period? He'd already been out twice.) was not enough to dampen our spirits.

Our happiness was brought on not only by Parker's "day" alone, but by the interaction between Ripken and Parker after I came home from work. We were in the backyard, and Parker was making runs at Ripken. At first, Ripken avoided Parker. Then, it became clear that Ripken was turning away from Parker and getting the little guy to chase him! They were actually playing together. Ripken bared his teeth at Parker, and jumped around with him. At one point, Ripken even knocked Parker down and stood over his prone little self, sniffing. And when Parker was chewing a stick, paying no mind to Ripken, the old dog went over and snatched the stick away from his little brother. Now that is some dog action I can endorse!