And now for something to lighten the mood...

After the tough week we had last week, we have spent a bit of time over the last few days trying to cheer up the hounds.

Tommy takes comfort from his big purple tennis ball. 

Poor Tommy can’t seem to catch a break. In addition to his wounds/nerves healing from his run-in with the little dog – he has had to contend with Mila being in a particularly impatient mood. He has been doing his best to give her some space (bless him), but our house is only so big and it is quite amazing how much space two hounds take up when they are trying to avoid each other.

A special delivery of Sam’s Cookies – Homemade Dog Treats on Saturday seemed to perk us up a bit going into the weekend, with the hounds devouring their carob-flavoured treats before the two days were through.  They are well worth an order, if you are considering it: see http://www.facebook.com/SamsDogCookies. With the “Mila & Tommy Seal of Approval”, you really can’t go wrong!

On Saturday, we took the dogs out to Kapiti for a bit of sunshine and relaxation (and to celebrate Mike’s birthday). It was there that we discovered that Tommy likes to be close to people who are dancing and jumping about the place like lunatics.

Of course, it is not as odd as it sounds. We had a couple of friends come round to watch the rugby (Go the Hurricanes!!) and have some drinks for the aforementioned birthday. One friend brought his Xbox Kinect (which works on sensors and body movement, instead of controllers or remotes) and after the rugby we set it up in the lounge with a big space cleared so people could dance, bowl, kick, block – and do whatever else they need to – without fear of smashing glasses, falling over tables (hello ACC!) or otherwise causing damage.

Mila watched from afar, intrigued by what was going on, but not quite brave enough to get close to the action. But Tommy surprised us all. He stood over by Mila for a moment and then, rugged up in his new PJs, wandered right through the “dance floor” and plonked himself down on the floor, a matter of centimetres away from the closest dancer, promptly falling asleep.

There was stomping and star jumps and a lot of very dramatic kicking going on in reasonably close proximity to Tommy’s head (although obviously not posing any real threat to him) – but he didn’t seem to mind at all. In fact, at one stage, as we tried to reposition the TV to give Tom a bit of extra space, he shuffled himself forward to be closer to us again. He got so involved in the action that the Xbox actually registered him as a second player in the game!! Up pops a little blonde haired female character (interesting choice) on the screen ready to be commanded by Tommy’s body movements. 

Unfortunately, he wasn’t all that interested in actually playing the game…so the most the girl got to do was turn her head from side to side as Tommy tried to find the most comfy position to fall back asleep in. If she could have ‘played dead’, she probably would have done that too.

Mike's going to kill me - but here he is playing Kinect. If you look closely, between Mike's legs is Tommy, enjoying the show, up close and personal.

No amount of coaxing could convince Tom that he was living in a war zone. He was perfectly content being close to the shouting and singing and vibrations from all the dancing about that was going on. It was actually very interesting because Tommy is usually very reserved when it comes to his interactions with people. He will come over for a pat for a couple of minutes and then happily wander back to his bed, allowing Mila to hog the rest of the attention...obviously not the case when there is noise, and movement and general frivolity to be had. I would say he's a bit of a party animal - but I'm not so sure that falling asleep in the middle of the festivities is quite what is meant by the term. 

Perhaps next time I can convince him to play Guitar Hero with me??