I was sent to another intriguing site tonight at young Adrian’s behest. I have to agree that Wwoolf’s blog was definitely a sight to cheer the heart. Today’s picture was of a magnificent tail, and it reminded me of the delight my sweet little Yonja greets me when I walk through the door after work. She gets so excited that she can barely sit still, bouncing and woofing all over the tiny entrance hall and whacking her tail on any vertical surface that is handy … like door-jambs and bookcase ends and legs. Then her bottom hits the floor and she shivers in pleasure while I say hello and give her a big “hugs-‘n’-cuddle”. How can one not give a dog a big cuddle when greeted like that?

I admit that in the three years that Yonja has been with us, it continually amazes me how that scared little pup has developed into a dog with such a sweet disposition.
She loves to snuggle up on the bed when I read in bed; She loves to lie on the floor under the husbands desk on his feet when he’s online; she loves to sit in the door of the dining room looking half-starved while we eat our tea, trying to convince us that she starving to death (whilst I must admit, I suspect that she is actually a touch labradorianly overweight * G *); She hates it when any of us are unwell and take to our beds, she will start out at the end of the bed to keep the invalid company, but before too long there are two heads on the pillow as she tries to frighten the bugs away from her charges.

I think the nicest thing about her is the way in which she still needs to have something in her mouth to bark defensively at the pedestrians passing the garden. The biggest giggle for me is the way in which in recent weeks she has taken to tennis balls. I was going to limit her to one, until the other day when she found the second one and took it outside. That produced the funny image of a dog trying to carry two balls at once and failing, then retreating a few steps and laying down with her nose on her front paws contemplating her dilemma. After a while she got up and went into the house without deigning to look at the multiple choice before her. She may be a bright spot in my life, but she is not really up to the difficult resolution of deciding how to deal with two tennis balls at once!