Being Smart Is Not Enough, #7664.

[mrissa]

Ista and I were out raking leaves. She is a poodle, not bred for northern climes, so we put a jacket on her when she's outside in the fall and winter, so that we can get some energy run off her before she's a mass of shivering bones. (She is also a fairly skinny poodle. Gets bored with eating and wanders off: I already smelled that. That's my girl. Sigh.)

Anyway, so she went under the deck, where monkeys cannot go, in her jacket, and she came out nekkid.

I said, "Ista, where's your jacket?"

She looked at me speculatively. We have only done "where's" with Piggy, and Piggy was Inside. The monkeys have been very clear that Piggy Stays Inside. Clearly I did not mean Piggy.

I said, "Jacket. Where's your jacket?"

She went and stabbed her nose downwards through the boards of the deck near the door to the sun porch. I followed her and looked. Sure enough, I could see a little bit of purple fleece. "Clever girl," I sighed. No way could we reach under there. Not even with the fing-longer. Well, someone could go under there.

I said, "Go get it, Ista! Get your jacket!" So off she trotted under the deck, and I heard scuffling and pulling and scuffling, and eventually she emerged without jacket. I think it's caught on something, a board under the deck or something. As usual, being smart is helpful but not sufficient.

Sigh.

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I watched her consider it and decide to forgive me after I'd taken her to the vet's and they'd stuck rectal thermometers in her several times. Some dogs don't remember something has happened enough to forgive you for it. She had to consider whether she wanted to for a moment.

[jmeadows.livejournal.com]

Oh WOW! The ferrets are easy. If I have treats, I'm forgiven. Ista must be super smart. Have you considered giving her a whiteboard and dry erase markers and see if she comes up with the cure for cancer? :D

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid she's not that directed mostly. That smart, possibly, but not that directed.

"'It was the best of times, it was the blorst of times'? Stupid monkeys!"

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Small children can be like that, too. (About the pediatrian, not the vet. Though maybe we should try taking the little monkey to a vet.) It took her most of the afternoon to forgive me after I tricked her into taking a nap.

Monkey: no nap! *yawns* don't wanna take a nap! *rubs eyes* no!
Adrian: that's ok, sweetie. You don't have to take a nap. How about a story instead?
Monkey: not a bedtime story!
Adrian: Of course not. You're not taking a nap.
Monkey: no story! *yawn*
Adrian: *takes out e-book reader* This is something my uncle gave me. Careful there. It looks like a pen, but it's just for drawing on this, it doesn't draw on paper.
Monkey: ooo! what is it?
Adrian: A long time ago, when all the grandfathers and grandmothers of today were little boys and girls or very small babies, or perhaps not even born, Pa and Ma and Mary and Laura and Baby Carrie left their little house in the Big Woods of Wisconsin...
Monkey snuggles up quietly and is completely asleep in less than 5 minutes.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Sometimes Not Taking A Nap is the best thing.