Dog Story I: A cute thing Bella did

Yesterday (or really all weekend) we tuckered Bella out. It has been beautiful in Anchorage for the past several days, with crystal clear skies, high temperatures in the low 50s and daylight from the time you wake up until a few minutes after you go to bed, and we made sure to enjoy it. Beth and I did some gardening (tulips are coming up!), cleaned up the backyard (that means poop), trimmed trees, put up the hammock, cleared leaves that had been insulating and protecting plants, went hiking, hung out in the sun and just generally had a lot of fun. Bella got to join in for all of this, and by the time she got back inside at around 5 yesterday evening she was pooped. How can you tell Bella's pooped? When she's just napping she'll spread out, but the more tired she is the more her back feet tuck up under her. Yesterday evening she had her back paws in front of her front paws. It's pretty cute, but it's not the cute thing that this post is about, so I can't get sidetracked here. Anyway, while Beth and I were on the couch, Bella curled up to take a nap near our feet and soon she was out cold. Dead to the world.

When Beth reached out to get one last bite of couscous from her plate, the noise startled Bella.

When Bella got startled, she kicked out her previously-tucked back legs.

When Bella kicked out her back legs, she kicked the open door to her crate.

When the crate door suddenly clanged, it really startled Bella.

In her terror Bella tried to leap directly into my lap on the couch.

Normally the couch is totally forbidden, but when a dog goes from lying down peacefully and deeply asleep to terrified and meek and attempting to get into your lap for protection, it seems to be something that escapes scolding. Anyway, she got her wits about her mid-jump and backed off. Then, out of a combination of relief that she wasn't in danger and fear of being in trouble she head-butted Beth's fork and sent couscous flying. Then she was even more afraid that she'd get in trouble. Instead, she just had to lie still for a few seconds while we picked up most of the couscous bits (what do you call those things, anyway? are they grains like rice?*). Then she got to come in and finish the cleanup before going back to sleep.

* granules, apparently. Somehow I find that disappointing.