Moderation

It's raining.  Again.  However, if it stays like this I won't complain.  It's just rain, it's not a storm.  In anticipation, I brought another load of wood to the porch yesterday so we're good to go.  Deb and Craig (actually, it was their cat, Clyde) gave Michael a plaid raincoat for Christmas and he will look quite natty when we go for a walk later today.

I've never known such a people magnet before.  I've had cute dogs, beautiful dogs, all good dogs, but none who've drawn strangers like Michael.  We made stops at his two favorite stores yesterday.  One was the Cookie Store.  We all know how he feels about that one.  The other was up at Gray's Corner, where they have wonderful plants in front and Michael feels it is his duty to water at least three every time we go there.  He's also trained the clerks at Gray's to give him a biscuit, so for him it's a two-fer outing.  At both shops, people, men and women, come to talk to him, comment on his manners, ask to pet him, and end up talking to me.  Michael takes it all in stride as his due.

I used to keep medium-size biscuits for Dogie and Bessie Anne.  I've been using the tiny ones to train Michael because he seems satisfied with them and he gets a number of them throughout the day.  I'd been buying a pound at a time, but yesterday I broke down and bought a 20-pound box.  He knows sit, down, shake, and the sign for all gone.  We're still working on "here to me!"

See It-Do It is working pretty well.  There's no sense in overdoing it, of course.  Like Michael and his cookies...all things in moderation.