I got to hang out with this guy this afternoon:
Oh hey, hi there! What's in here? Can I eat it?
Chief of Staff Derek asked me earlier today if I was up for helping with some dog sitting, and I, busy at work on a crossword puzzle (it's all the work I have during August Recess....), promptly sat alert, exclaiming that yes indeed, I was up for the job. He said he was going to home and get the Pup around 2:30 (which means 3:45) and bring him back to the office, so he could take him along to a dinner right after work with a friend who wanted to meet Pup. D hoped I could maybe take the Pup outside for awhile, hang out with him, while D did some work.
I was happy to help with the special task set before me.
After D brought him back to the office, around 4:30, and doted on him a little bit, he gave me some instructions and guidance, and then sent us off to play for the rest of the afternoon. Pup and I crossed the street to the lawn of the Capitol and got cozy in the shade about 15 feet from the sidewalk. In our lovely deseret, we played with a rope, a noisy chew toy, and a tennis ball - rather, I shoved these things in his face to distract him from eating my flip flops, the buttons on my cardigan, my fingers, my blackberry, and the plastic bag that carried all of his official chew toys. The distractions didn't work out too well. And I spoiled him with treats, also to distract him from my flip flops and cardigan. And of course, he preferred chewing on the bag of treats rather than the treats themselves...
Wait, the treats are IN the bag? I thought you said the treat WAS the bag. Are you sure it isn't?
Pup would sometimes get tired and clamber onto my legs for a quick breather. Then he'd get distracted by the sound of the gates squeaking as they moved for cars to pull in/out of the Capitol parking lot. And the cars on the road drew his attention as they honked at each other. He was very attentive to the goings-on of the streets.
It's a car, it's a car, it's a car! Squirrel!
As we played, whispers of excited passers-by on the sidewalk floated to ears, communicating gleeful notices of "it's a PUPPY!" and "look at the cute little dog!" and "awwwww, what a cute PUPPY!" I agreed with them all (except when he kept trying to eat the my sweater buttons - he couldn't leave them alone...), but tried to act like I didn't hear them - to save us all from the actual recognition that Pup and I were basically just another museum display for the tourists leaving the many Smithsonians for the evening.
Pup strikes a dignified pose for the ogling onlookers
One little family went so far as to stop and say they should get a picture of the Pup, as he had decided at that moment to saunter a bit in the direction of the sidewalk. Then they saw me and asked for permission for a picture - I said sure (what do I care, he's not mine anyway), but then Pup grew bashful and ran back to me (and by run, I mean wobble) and buried himself under my leg. Apparently, he's more of a behind-the-scenes kind of guy.
Please don't make me smile, I'm tired of looking good for the camera...
I finally decided it was time to go back inside about 45 minutes later, when Pup wouldn't take no for an answer regarding eating my flip flops and we had a fun 5 minute game of tag/try and catch my feet without me stepping on you accidentally. As you can see, tag is a much shorter name, so we mainly called it that. We got our exercise from tag, and I got Pup riled up enough to push out a few little yelps from his wrinkly little body - he's not much of a barker. I grew tired of this game faster than he did, so I picked him up, gathered his toys and put them carefully in the tattered plastic bag, hoping everything would stay in it until I made it back to the office, and we made our way back in.
It turns out, security guards at the Cannon building are A:) huge dog-lovers and/or B:) SUPER bored during August, because I came through the metal detector and the 2 tough guards came up to me and fawned all over little Pup. They gave him some good loves for a minute and one of them remembered he had a bag of doggie treats (the House buildings are very dog-friendly, it seems), so he ran and got one for spoiled little Pup. Then we made our way back to the office, where Pup ran into the welcoming arms of his smitten master.
It was a great Wednesday afternoon on the Hill, if I may say so.
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