Mom started the game. First she went out to the center of the lawn and stopped around in a circle. I stayed in the sit position but boy, was I curious.
I whined. Softly, but she heard.
I could tell by the way she turned to look at me and raised her finger to her lips for no noise.
She kept stomping, turning in a circle.
She'd never done that before, but I stayed sitting because I had gotten a whiff of the ham in her pocket.
Sure enough, she dropped something in the circle then walked back to where I sat.
I waited for her to let me out of the sit so I could go inspect the ground. The ham scent was so strong on her fingers I began to salivate. (Well, I hadn't had ham in a long time - at least a couple of days.)
Mom made me sit a while before she said, "Okay, Alma, go find."
I had no idea what "go find" meant but I ran over to the where Mom and dropped the ham. Four pieces.
I ate them up and turned to see if she had more.
"Sit."
Oh, good. Now I'd get the ham.
First came pets. Nice, but I wanted the ham.
She made me go back and sit on the patio again.
Then she did the stopping thing in another part of the yard. She took a step and dropped the ham where she had stepped. As soon as she dropped the ham and started to walk toward me I stood up ready to go eat.
"Sit."
Busted. I had to wait for her to come back to me.
Again we made that eye contact thing she is so big into and then she said what I was waiting to hear, "Go find."
I went straight to the ham.
She came and made me sit again. Really, she could just give me all the ham. I already had this game figured out and it was a bit silly. I mean I could see her dropping the ham in the circle.
Then, she changed the game up. This time she went into the woods. When she came back she stuck a smelly sock into my face that smelled of her sweat and ham.
"Go find."
Now this was a bit confusing. How could she lose what was in her hand? I ignored her silly command and ran towards the woods to look for the ham.
I stopped. I couldn't smell the ham. I could smell where Mom had walked so I put my nose to the ground and followed her scent down the path until I came to another dirty sock, strong with Mom's scent. I grabbed the sock and ran toward Mom who gave me lots of praise but made me walk back with that dirty sock in my mouth to where I'd found it.
"Sit."
I dropped the sock and sat and that is when I got my ham.
Now I have no idea why I had to drop that sock but I soon learned that if I found the sock and sat beside it I got the ham faster. If I tried to bring the sock to Mom she made me carry the dirty sock back to where I found it, drop it on the ground and then bark. Then I got my ham.
Mom thought she'd get tricky with hiding the sock. She went into the side yard, deeper in the woods where I couldn't see, but she didn't know that this game was easy.
All I had to do was follow Mom's scent to find the ham.
It was almost like taking candy from a baby, although I tried that once and got no treats at all.
Tracking Mom around the woods is much more fun.
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