Bakerball
About the best $2.50 we spend is for those big plastic play balls that sit, two for $5, in towering bins in the big discount stores which we frequent when we need something like a big plastic play ball or a good belly laugh.If you haven't figured it out from previous posts, play balls push Baker's buttons in a big way. The leather basketball he guarded so ferociously (see Uppity Puppy) started mysteriously losing air, wouldn't bounce, and is now his property. We don't think he's at fault... He lugs it all over the yard, and has pulled its stem out as a handle. You can try to kick it a little ways but nobody is about to try to get it away from him. It takes a little pressure off Phoebe and Liam when they're playing basketball for Chet to have his own now, so it's all good.
Giant plastic play balls light up a whole 'nother section of Chet's switchboard.
They make him krazy. He runs at warp speed around the house
pushing the ball before him with his conveniently flat nose. 
Rowf!The object of any game involving inflatable balls, of course, is to pop the thing.
So Chet runs the ball into a tree, shrub, or clump of blooming salvia and tries to get a purchase on the slick surface so he can sink a canine into it and hear that satisfying pop and wheeze of escaping air. Then he can shake the remaining life out of it.
Of course, we try as best we can to prolong the ball's term on earth by intervening, and throwing it for him. The game starts with a play-bow and a bunch of barkin'. Or, in Chet's case, rroo roo roo-in'.
Baker lifts off the ground, catching a whole lot of air, trying to connect with the ball.
Oh, he's a fine sight. When I was thinking about what breed of dog might fit our lifestyle, I had to turn away from pugs and French bulldogs, which I absolutely adore, because I wanted a smashy-faced dog that could also leap and run and hike for miles. We needed something with legs. After a winter when his left hind knee had a strained ligament, Baker's beautifully sound now, but we try not to overdo the leaping, especially on concrete. Cue theme from Jaws:
Such a beautiful little animal. I will never tire of watching him, photographing him, and just running my hands over that sleek little bod.Chet connects, and knocks the ball up and out of Bill's hands, boom!
Back to earth for my flying puppeh. That's yer Chetfix for the week, served up hot, hold the onions.
Labels: Boston terrier, Chet Baker, Chetfix, dog playing ball
posted by Julie Zickefoose @ 10:31 AM
17 comments
17 Comments:
Something to start my day, pix of Chet Baker. He is always better then just birds and other interesting things that I enjoy so very much. Chet is a dog among dogs, I enjoy his expressions, they make laugh, and I remember HIM thru the day with pictures in my head. Chet's blogs are the best.
Nature Knitters, Mom [Betty Kaun]
Hi Julie,
Quite the amazing little pooch you've got there. Does he eventually pop a big ball like that? Does he like Frisbees too, or are balls the favorite?
Ooohhh....a CB fix!!! Thanks!!!
Question - did he pop the ball yet?
:o)
Wow, great pictures! I feel so much better now after the creepy crawly post of cockroach extraodinaire. Chet fixes make everything all better!
I am always amazed at the similarities in our dogs. We share so much fun!
We've been through the check-out lines with the same play balls. One ball would last a week. Not bad. But as Bella grew older, she was able to pop the ball in 5 seconds flat - she was smart enough to run it against the fence! We stopped budgeting for balls and switched to hula-hoops that take her a good month to completely destroy.
I love this Chet Fix. He's a mighty fine athlete! Keep 'em comin', Julie!
So, I march over to my recumbant 1/2 border collie, and demand--why can't you be like Chet Baker?
Just kidding--she doesn't try to pop balls--instead, she has decided it is her job in life to police the cats, which she does. Any time they start chasing and playing, she comes running out--rowf rowf, knock that off.
Thanks for the Baker fix and pics.
We have a ball-popping Golden Retriever. Imagine her surprise when we gave her a big, hard plastic ball the size of a basketball. She rolled over it, on it, pushed it with her nose, her feet, and did every trick she could think of to pop it. She was totally comsumed with figuring it out. Finally, she seemed to realize this is a ball for pushing, not for popping. She still loves it, but also loves her popped "soccer" balls.
It must be the heat but the first thing I thought of when I saw the photos of solo Baker running with the big ball was of that old wonderfully bizarre British program "The Prisoner", with Patrick (I am not a number, I am a free man!)McGoohan and the big white blob that would chase him to bring him back to "the island". Yes, it must be the heat.
Ruthie and Dorothy, yass, he pops every one! It's a race against time.
Mary, we keep trying to interest him in a cheap hula hoop, but he's convinced it is a trap of some sort. He feels the same way about laundry baskets. The kids have played too many practical jokes on him. Darn it! I looove the hula hooop pix. Keep 'em coming.
Anonymous, we need an unpoppable ball. Where'd you get it?
And Christine, darling, The Prisoner was de rigeur for summer rerun watching. My sister was obsessed with it. I thought the same thing, and I always think of The Dreaded White Blob when Baker scoots around the yard with a kickball. Just never mentioned it because I figured it'd be too arcane. Now I know there's nothing too arcane for you guys. Did you know it was filmed in the village of Portmeirion, Wales, where my Botanic Garden china is made? It's a walled village...I must go there someday, but I fear the weight of my luggage coming home should I do it...we'd go down somewhere over the Atlantic.
The current status of The Ball is: buried deep in a poison ivy-raspberry-sumac thicket where Baker chased it. I wasn't goin' in there in shorts. I'll get to it eventually...I also had to bathe Baker immediately after these shots were taken because of course he crashed through the PI. What I must go through for my art. *martyred sigh*
RE: hard plastic balls. We got them (they are in various sizes) at Pet Supplies Plus. I'll do a little Web searching to see if I can find the exact balls.
Wouldn't you know he would find the poison ivy?
Ahhh - a cleansing Chet Baker post after the icky roach (ugh.) Just what we needed, thanks!
Wasn't sure which animal this quote referred to: "Such a beautiful little animal. I will never tire of watching him, photographing him, and just running my hands over that sleek little bod" but assumed you meant Chet, and not Bill.
I have a hard plastic ball I bought for my dogs to push around, and they ignore it completely. For them, the only good ball is a tennis ball.
~Kathi
I'm going to have to keep an eye out for that British show!
I love the botanical Portmerion. Didn't know it was made in Wales. I wish I had some..my china is a set of English Spode with different Canadian provincial flowers on each place setting that I inherited from my aunt
"a beautiful little animal. I will never tire of watching him, photographing him, and just running my hands over that sleek little bod."
Hey Julie...you talkin' bout Baker or his Papa?
Bill is many things--photogenic, athletic, even sleek, but little is not one of them.
I gotta say, the pics of Chet are SO much more rewarding than the cockroach business. Which was informative but gross all the same.
SWEET! Always happy to take a CB fix, onions or no. Although it's probably best WITHOUT Trader Joe's chicken strips, for your family's sake....
Awwww . . .
I'm so grateful for my Bella/Chloe fixes. Now I've got dear Chet :0)
(Hope it doesn't hurt your feelings, but dang! This is a lot better than cockroaches.)
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