a couple of friday's ago, i came home to find that my parents had already picked up chaeli from school and were back at our house. hobbes had been home all day.
normally, when i come home, hobbes routinely follows me upstairs while i change out of my work clothes. that day, he ran right up to the bottom of the stairs and then stopped dead in his tracks.
i turned to look at him briefly but didn't think much of it. until i got the very top landing. a landing which is also home to a very large, potted plant. usually, this plant sits there pretty insignificantly - letting us pass by it almost unnoticed since it now is just blended in to that top-landing scenery.
that day, however, while the plant was still as it was in it's usual corner directly under our skylight, there was dirt circling around it as well as a trail of dirt on our carpet.
i looked at it and muttered, damn dog.
i quickly changed and then headed downstairs to find him. but... he was no where to be found. what he did was head down to the basement to sit with my dad. now, the couch we have down there is right next to the stairs so that when you sit down and turn your head to the left, you can see up the stairway. apparently, hobbes was sitting on the opposite side of my dad from the stairs, peeking up the whole time. as soon as i appeared, he ducked down. and when i came downstairs to get him heck, he even tries to scurry behind my dad.
my dad didn't move for him - when hobbes surrendered to defeat, he flopped his chin on my dad's lap as he looked up at me. if dogs could talk, i swear, the words coming from hobbes would have been something like, "oh mom. i'm sorry - i couldn't help myself!"
i must say, it's hard to stay mad when they look this cute and obviously sincere. still - i had to finish this off. so i carried him upstairs and went through the whole procedure... pointing at the mess, asking him in a stern voice if he did all that, then confirming that what he did was bad. the whole time, his ears were as low as possible, he was slouched over with his head hanging down. he also was trying to avoid eye contact - doug says it's 'the look of shame' that they fear.
then, while he looked away with guilt, he raised his paw and tried to offer me a paw-shake.
i must admit - it's damn hard trying to stay angry when all you want to do is laugh!
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