Piper and Woofie

There is a new attraction in the Felix household. Woofie has realized it’s best to befriend the grabby midget and she’ll drop food down to him. What he doesn’t realize is that the food is sugar snap peas, frozen peas and cheerios (yes! Piper eats cheerios, my big girl!). Still, our overweight “mini” dachshund (I laugh in the face of the term “mini”) will take what he can get.

The other day Paul witnessed something interesting going on between Piper and Woofie. It appeared Woofie was taunting our little crawler with his squeaky toy! He’d grab it, mosey over to where she was sitting, inch closer to her then dart out of her reach when she started reaching for him. Paul laughed at Woofie’s trickery, but felt bad for Piper because she’s not fast enough to play grab-it with a dog!

Yesterday, though, I caught Woofie doing the same thing. This time, though, I realized- he’s PLAYING with her. He’s not taunting her, he’s trying to get her to play with him! At first I felt a little guilty, how neglected is this poor dog? Trying to get a baby who can’t even manage to sit upright and look up at the same time without falling backwards to play tug of war with him! Then I sat back and watched their game unfold.

Woofie would grab the rubber squeaky toy by one of the ends (it’s shaped like a barbell, but the ends have three parts instead of one round end) and have the other end of the toy facing Piper. Piper would try to grab it, and thinking she was going to be faster at it, Woofie would dart back a step. Then, noticing she hadn’t grabbed it, he would sidle up to her again and give her another chance. She missed grabbing it a few times so Woofie got fed up and decided to just drop it on her lap and he’ll take the end that she doesn’t have. Unfortunately for that idea, she just picked up the toy and “threw” it back to him. And again. And again. It was seriously the cutest thing I have ever seen.

Since Piper was born, her relationship with Woofie has been complicated. At first, she was the crying thing that demanded so much time. Then she became “The Thing That Kicks” (which is how we heard her first laugh!), so he learned to stay away from her. After that bit of fun, Woofie dropped his guard enough to let her pat him- pat, not pet. He’d be on the couch and we’d join him. With a wary eye, Woofie would stay there, even until she got a little closer. Then, one day… Piper grabbed a baby fistful of naked puppy tummy. After that he kept his distance, jumping off the couch should she be near. When she began to crawl, he’d run up and snuff her for awhile, which she loved. More recently, she began shoving him away, which Woofie seems to take as a challenge? A bit of rough play, maybe? Thus began the “Piper and Woofie- Best Friends Forever” era.

It is too cute for words. I must get it on camera, really.