Surprise in the Mail...and a Tag Story!

So.

You all know how I love getting packages in the mail!

You must...cuz you keep sending them!  {grin} 

I'm not sure if you remember Erin of 'why not sew?' fame...

from the 'We Double Rock Swap' last year.

Just the two of us.

Swapping doll-sized quilts.

I blogged about it here and here. 

Yup, she's one of my blogger BFF's.

For sure!

Anyway.  I received a small package from Erin in today's mail.

No clue what it was.

ohmygosh...

She sent me a needle case that she made and blogged about here!!!

(I really hope you all are checking these links out!)

 

...it's now MINE, ALL MINE!

ohman, I love it and I needed it soooo badly!!!

BUT, wait!  That's not all she sent!

She also made this little half-square triangle

(hereafter referred to as hst)

mini quilt for me!

I love it!!

Look at all those bitty hst's!

Finished size of each hst is 1 1/4".

The mini quilt measures roughly 9 x 10 inches.

It is A. Dor. Able!

Don't you think?

Thank you so very much, Erin!

I love, love, LOVE them!

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And, now...the Tag story!

As most of you regular readers know, Tag E Butt is one smart boy.  He is my service dog.  Not officially, but in reality...yes, he is.  He picks up whatever I ask him to.  Paper, phone, remote, fabric, shoe, sock, pen...the list goes on and on.  Being a retriever, this all comes naturally to him.  He has such a soft mouth, too.  When he picks up paper for me, there is not a tooth mark on it.  Not all wet and sloppy, either.

In addition to being the quintessential brown dog, he also has a huge vocabulary!  I have always talked (LOTS) to my dogs, and I think that they develop a better vocabulary from that.  And, the word recognition game is an ongoing process.  He has recently learned 'food bowl'.  So, now, it's up to him to bring his food bowl to the kitchen when it's time to eat.  As I walk to the kitchen, I say, 'get your food bowl'...he grabs it and brings it to me in the kitchen.  


Course, he thinks it's great fun to bring it to me at other times to see if I'll fill it up.  I don't...unless it's actually mealtime.  Which, sometimes, it is!  His inner clock and all that.  




Okay.  Here's the story.  It was suppertime for Tag.  I didn't say a word to him...just walked to the kitchen...didn't ask him if he was 'hungry', if it was 'time to eat', I didn't say 'get your food bowl'...nothing.  He followed me out to the kitchen, being the ever hopeful food-driven boy that he is...he knows what time it is.  (really)  I opened the cupboard door, got a pill (phenobarbital) from the bottle, and stood there looking at him.  Put my hands out, as if to say, "well?"  but I didn't say a word.  He looked at me for a moment, sat (a very nice sit on the slippery floor, too) and then you could see it...the 'aha' moment!  He ran out to where his crate is (his food bowl sits on top of his crate between feedings), grabbed the bowl and brought it to me.  

5/25 edited to add:  Apparently, I should have given a more detailed explanation of the 'feeding Tag' routine so that you would better understand the 'aha' moment.  Tag gets a pill (anticonvulsant because he has idiopathic epilepsy) with each meal, so opening the cupboard door to get one is the first thing I do once he brings his bowl.  So, to just stand there...I didn't have his bowl to put the pill in...that was the 'aha'!  Tag connected those dots and got his food bowl.


I praised him BIG time and we were both happy that he had figured out what I was doing.  What a good boy!  It is always so exciting to see it happen...when he figures out what the missing piece of the puzzle is.



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DWTS is tonight!  Two dances...one a freestyle!  Cannot wait!