Charlie

Yes, this is Charlie offering his bandana to me, hoping I will want to play with him. He often runs around the house with one toy or another in his mouth. When I ask him if he wants to go out to potty, he scoops up a toy and runs to the door, carrying it out while he squats in the grass. I wonder what his toys mean to him. I don' t know, but he is cuter than cute.
We noticed that he had an eye infection last weekend, so as of Monday we are having to instill ointment in his eye and drops in both ears. He acts like we are murdering him: crying, pushing against us with his front feet, looking fearfully at us. At least, that is how he was the first day. Now he just runs into his kennel and tries to hide until Sam hauls him out and sits down in the recliner with him "in position." I descend on him, sweet-talking the whole time as I put the ointment in his eye. That is usually not a big deal. It's the ear drops that he hates. After one set of drops goes in, Sam carefully rubs his ear to work the drops down into the canal. Then Charlie gets rotated to the other side for the next set of ear drops. He'll whine and press into Sam's chest, trying to get away from me. But he never snaps or growls. Then he wags his little tail weakly while I get him a "cookie."
He's never angry at us, never spiteful about what we have done to him. Contrary to how a human would react, Charlie leaps with excitement the moment he hears us coming down the stairs in the morning. We get wet kisses and cheerful barking as soon as we get within range.

God, make me like our puppies--who takes what is given with only a short whine, and never retaliation!