Sweet Amazing Gracie

Ahhhhh.....how could you ever walk away from such an adorable little puppy face? Sweet surrendering brown eyes.......Well, guess what? You can't. Why? Because she comes bounding after you with a demonic growl intent on piercing your latest nylons, pyjama bottoms, coat, or even your stiff striped rubber boots. She can't leave well enough alone, our Gracie.

You don't believe me do you? Look at her! She's a monster, all curled up and sleeping after a good chomping romp dreaming of catching squirrels and eating unmentionables. You just want to pick her up, put her on your lap and stroke her puppy belly. I dare you to put your face close to hers.......she'll nip your nose and grab at your earrings! Our sweet Gracie isn't a lap dog, oh no! She's a defiant sassy canine who devours dried up pigs ears in one scarfing like it was one piece of kibble. She inhales her dinner and slops up her water and then promptly PEES on our other dog, Lily's bed while staring you down!
Ah, but who can resist the puppy paws, all soft and stumbly? At lunchtime today during our midday walk, Gracie bounded down the street after Lily only to hit a patch of thick slush and splayed out in a ballet move similar to Bambi on ice. My heart leapt for her. "Poor little thing," I thought, "just learning how to manoeuver winter's wonder".....well, until she promptly got up and bounded at me in attack mode! yeah, yeah she just wanted to play puddle jumping with the Mistress. I WAS DRESSED FOR WORK!! Oh well, I've gone to work with baby yuks strewn on the shoulder of my suit jacket before, what's a bunch of dirty paws on the trench coat?

Evidence of her lovely sweetness......the "playful" attack on the Lady of the house....Miss Lily, who up until this fall was a calm reliable friend who never left the front yard on her own, who never growled and would let any sticky fingered snot nosed kid to climb all over her. Afraid of the dark, loud noises, and her own shadow, Lily has never needed a leash even on a busy street. However, she has found her inner alpha dog........and as much as it goes against her Quaker like persona, she has had to resort to some intense TEACHING.

Unfortunately, this seems to happen in the middle of my living room which has just about been trashed completely. Every piece of wicker is munched.....sticks and chewed up errant pencils, torn up tissues, boxes and mittens......shoes too........all seem to get dragged into the munched up rugs. All pales in comparison to how much grief poor Lily has endured.......and embarrassment too! This puppy has no boundaries or proprieties.........

We never knew Lily could make a face like that! And believe it or not, they were playing. In fact while I was taking these photos this evening, everytime the camera would make a ding sound, Gracie would stop and pounce on me as I sat on the floor. Then as I was laughing at her shocking energy pointed at me, she would turn back to poor Lily and pounce on her again.

Sweet, irreverant, a pain in the ass puppy. Maybe one day she'll live up to her name? If she doesn't I may be the first one charged with strangling Grace.

Sweet dreams.............and may we never judge a book by it's cover ever again.

The thematic photography prompt this week over at Carmi's site is sweet..... For more sugary pics, click here.