Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Mani the tiny purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here to, well, today, to show a bunch of pictures of me, and some tulips, too. You may remember me from such posts as “Thirteen Pictures”, among at least a few others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
I’ve supposedly been “really naughty” today, though I don’t see how that’s possible; I was just doing stuff, but the guy I live with went so far as to say I was a naughty noodle, which is what his companion used to call purebred border collies who “did something untoward”. He even said that she was basically in charge of all the purebred border collies here and would occasionally paddle their butts when they did something wrong, which I did, today. I just don’t see it, myself.
You be the judge.
Look at all the time I spent on the couch. In fact, I was doing this, minding my own business,
right before the guy I live with came over with the camera and so I had to sit up, to look agreeable, and he took my picture. Does this look like a “naughty noodle”?
I don’t think so either.
After lunch, I went back and slept on the couch more, but at the other end. See?
not guilty
And then later, I played outside with my chicken. Quite innocently. 
As you can tell. 
The guy I live with took some tulip pictures. You know, the little ones; the early, wild types. I guess this was while I was being naughty. 
That was pretty much it for the whole day. Okay, so I did pull out a few plant labels and run around the garden with them, evading the guy I live with quite easily, and making him say stuff he doesn’t usually say. And so I did unroll the toilet paper three or four times. Whose fault was it that there were labels all over the place and that the bathroom door was left open?
I’ll leave you now, with one more picture of me on the couch, and await your verdict.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Yeah, I can imagine how long the guy you live with stayed mad at that adorable face. I AM SMITTEN!
Thanks; I think, though the guy I live with says this is immodest, that I am fairly adorable. And totally innocent, of course. It was what my lawyer would call an “attractive nuisance”.
Not guilty by reason of being insanely cute! Which is quite different from being innocent. We use the word “schnicklefritz” to describe dogs who behave badly. It’s a word my German-American mother-in-law used.
I agree, not guilty. The guy I live with says he thinks he knows that word, being half German-American (really Alsatian-American).
Innocent!
Plus, there’s been a lot posted by your predecessor about missing labels, so not a new thing. Plus, plus, door left open, duh. Opportunity for fun must be seized.
Tell The Guy his philosophy on canine punishment has had a huge effect around here. Now we never punish – okay, we never did – but Petey and Shredder get lectured a lot more. We’re all having lots of fun with the concept. Lecturing is excellent.
We consume a lot of soy sauce around here. When we visited Japan, we toured a factory. And I met Gary Snyder – one of the Fresno poets at the time, along with Phillip Levine – and he was memorable, everything a poet should be, especially of the Zen persuasion. Loved the poem, thank you.
Thanks; how cool to have met G.S. The guy I live with spent an awful lot of time lecturing me about chewing plastic. About the time that Pooka, whose picture is on the living room wall and who also had radar ears, chewed through an “Elizabethan collar” (I don’t know what that is, though he said there was one here, just in case) and got a blockage and had to go to the emergency vet and how awful it was, so I do spit the labels out, rather a long way from where they originally were, which starts another lecture. He also makes a lot of loud noises that I don’t quite understand. He heard that we purebred border collies can tell things by the tone of voice used, and, if that’s how it works, then he was really mad at me kind of a lot today. I only stole about five labels… And then there’s this Other Thing. When he holds up his index finger and kind of shakes it. He says that’s “The Finger of Instruction in the Attitude of Correction”, but I just don’t see it. For one thing, I have to be paying attention.
Ack! Forgot to add: Tulip pictures are lovely, they pick up the couch colors rather well. Wild, you say?
Thanks; well, the first one is Tulipa humilis, and the second might be T. wilsoniana, so, well, not IN the wild. Could have said “species tulips” but that sounds so snobbish, you know, and maybe people think “purebred border collie” might be a little over the top, but since I look kind of like a badger, or maybe a fox, I thought it important to clarify.
I don’t believe it.. Trouble? A boys just gotta have fun. Now how can such an adorable innocent face be trouble? Nah.lo I think you are just making sure the guy you live with gets exercise… Righto? 🙂 I love those wild tulips, especially the pink ones. Can one buy the bulbs for planting? Or are they truly wild?
Thanks; I agree, how can one so innocent-looking really be naughty? It’s just the guy I live with’s skewed view of the world. First tulip is Tulipa humilis, which you can buy online; second one might be T. wilsoniana, or some other dinky red tulip. What the guy I live with said to do is just order all the species tulips, except maybe T. tarda, which seeds all over the place. Like the puschkinia you can see in the first tulip picture. Sorry, I was more concerned about making my case, rather than tulip talk.
You are an oppressed tiny border collie. One of my cats unrolls the toilet paper to cover his poop when his misses his box, and I just clean it up. Toilet paper is cheap and the clean up is easy. I’m sure those pesky squirrels move more of the labels – they probably run off with them to line their nest. You are too cute to be blamed for ANYTHING.
Thanks; I agree and will have the guy I live with read this. Oppressed, that’s the word. Though, today, and I didn’t mention this in my post, the gate blocking the downstairs was removed, so I can go down there. That’s a really big deal, and maybe I’ll talk about it more later, but right now the downstairs looks pretty scary.
Not guilty does not necessarily mean innocent! But super adorable, I’m sure, as you ran around with your prizes. The Finger of Instruction must be endured, however, because trip to the vet of “that sort” are really no fun at all.
Yes, so I hear. But I’ve become very good at chasing bunnies out of the yard, and so maybe that makes up for everything, except for chewing on plant labels, which the guy I live with says is naughty. See, the plan here is that, since the guy I live with is pretty ancient, that I can help his aging brain by forcing him to memorize all the plants in the garden, which he used to be able to do, but claims can’t do any more.
If I can say species tulips, so can your guy, in my opinion, anyway. If I could make an innocent face like yours, I could get away with anything!
I definitely agree that looking innocent helps a lot. The guy I live with doesn’t want to sound too hoity-toity, that’s all. Like, “I’m sorry, I only have purebred border collies in this house. ABCA registered, that is. Naughty as they may be.”
Compared to Lola, the border collie who lives here, you are an angel, and you can tell the guy you live with I said so. Lola likes to chase the horses around, and she likes to sit on the edge of our garden, barking towards the outside world for no particular reason. Once that gets boring, or if she’s feeling a bit peckish, she trots off to visit a neighbor and raid the dog food they keep outside. Then there’s nothing like a joyous roll in fresh horse manure. But her most favorite thing of all is when she and her friend Shadow spot bunnies in the garden who need some chastising. She and Shadow also like to scare the lady who lives here by racing off in hot pursuit of coyotes. This has resulted in Shadow coming home with holes in his neck, but it is all so thrilling, who can resist? Lola is a grown up lady of 6, so you would think she’d be better behaved. Anyway, it IS good for the guy you live with to try to remember the names of his own plants. Try mixing the labels up rather than just carrying them away! That will be good mental exercise for him.
Thanks; I pretty much agree I’m an angel. I did get to play with a small dog named Lola, L-o-l-a Lola, the Arch Enemy of the border collie who lived here before me, and she didn’t seem much like an arch enemy to me.
We don’t have horse poop around here, that I know of, though there are horses not very far away, they just don’t poop here, but one thing we do have, and it’s complicated how I know this, but Pooka, who was here a long time ago, once rolled in fresh raccoon poop right before his trip to the vet for a checkup.
He was very proud of the way he smelled. No one else was.