Can you feel the love?

Doogie goes outside with me all the time.
Tucker goes outside with me sometimes - usually when Doogie's also outside.
Simon rarely goes outside - and I suppose maybe when he does, he'd appreciate if Doogie wasn't out there as well...


Honestly, Simon doesn't usually express THIS much hatred for the dog while inside. But Doogie gets wound up and wants to play - and when it's Tucker, sometimes Tucker DOES play with him. Tucker definitely TAUNTS Doogie, wiggling his tail under Doogie's nose, etc...


Simon, on the other hand, usually steers clear of the dog in the house, or will only go check him out if the dog's clearly asleep. Now if I'm petting Simon and Doogie comes up to sniff the cat, then Simon's actually MUCH better about it - and it's those times that Doogie seems to want to sniff Simon's teeth (next time he's in the vet's office, I'm having them check Simon's teeth to see if there's anything bad going on in there!).


We've even had times where Doogie or Simon will be lying there next to one of us, like in bed, and the other will come up and lay down near or next to the other, and Doogie's actually laid down pretty much ON Simon before (looooots of petting distracted Simon for awhile, but in the long run, you know that didn't work out).


But when you get the dog riled up, and they're all outside, it's sort of a free-for-all.


I promise - I stayed right there and supervised the whole thing. Every bitch-slap across the snout.


Every evil glare.


Every attempt to pounce on the cat.


Poor Simon must've been getting dizzy - that damn dog kept trying to run circles around him, going in for the occasional nip, which just turned into a smack.


Check out the ridge of fur along Simon's back!


Simon can really put on a show when he wants to look TOUGH (and we HAVE actually seen him chase Doogie around the house more than once).


But you can tell from both his face and his tail that Doogie was having the time of his life - what a HAPPY pup!


Now here's where it got both funny AND had me worried. Doogie went way out in the yard, and Simon saw that as his chance to change his position - to get somewhere a bit safer perhaps?


Here you see that Simon has turned back towards the house, and Doogie's just turning around to come back at him. I was sitting on the deck steps and realized it was going to be an "oh shit!" moment for me - I didn't want these two hurtling at me, so I moved to get out of the way as fast as I could!


Right after this picture they both went whizzing past me for the door to go into the house.

Only the screen door was shut.

Simon smacked into the screen door, nose first, a split second before Doogie did. By that time, Doogie pretty much landed on Simon, straddling him, and Simon was still recovering from being stunned by slamming into the screen.

Poor cat, I was really worried about him. He kept shaking his head and sneezing, and I worried he'd done some of that "nose cartilage smashed into the brain" damage you hear about on TV and in movies. Luckily after a few sneezes he was fine - I'd already scooped him up, so I put him back inside while leaving Doogie outside, figuring Simon could use a bit of a breather. Poor guy. (But it sure was fun!)