#1,166 Staring.

You know why I love our great pyrenees? Because they’re as big as me and even though they’re still really young they’re never rambunctious. They act like very old dogs, on watch or constantly looking for someone to lean on and nuzzle. My favorite thing is at night when I go out to feed them and Baker gets out of bed and walks over to me all sloth-like slowly and he gets right up against me and just stares at me. It’s terribly endearing. I scratch his chin and pull his ears and he just stares at me right in the eyes. I used to think it wasn’t love, that he just knew I put the food in his bowl. But I put the food in the bowl and he ignores it. Instead, while his fancy kibble with chewy pieces that look like t-bone steaks sits in his bowl, he does this for as long as I’ll look back at him:

If I stop petting him, he pets my knee. If I hold his paw, the staring game is back on.

Chevy watches all of this from his dog house, half asleep, half watching the yard for intruders. I go over to him, Baker glued to my side and crouch down to give Chevy a scratch too. He whimpers a little like when he was a puppy. Baker rubs his face against my hair and neck then tries to get in the house with Chevy so we can all be as close as possible but he’s too fat.

And that. Is what I love most about our dogs.