(You're really going to get sick of hearing those puns, Epic's momma!)
Meet Epic.
Epic is the cutest Jack Russel Terrier puppy EVER! As much as I love Shelties, I have to admit that they aren't really the cutest puppies, especially when you compare them to something like Epic.
Epic is owned by a friend of mine, mom also to Benny (you may remember Benny from "Ode to a Benny"). He is a fiesty little pup that is still firmly entrenched in the carpet-shark-learning-to-deal-with-my-terrierness stage. So, in his owner's endless pursuit to socialize the beasty, we met up for a play date.
Normally, Romeo will play with anything that moves and Gio will firmly ignore anything that isn't food or a ball. Tables were a little turned tonight, as Gio seemed to really draw Epic's attention and Romeo flatly refused to acknowledge the wee hairless beasty. Epic is still learning to get over the "just because it barks it doesn't mean it is going to eat me" idea, so the Shelties fit into that plan just nicely. In a Sheltie's world, barking goes hand in hand (err ... paw in paw?) with playing, and running, and excitement. At first, Epic was a little hesitant about the random loud noises, and there was a lot of this ...
But he figured out that the barking was in no way directed at him (unless he was monopolizing the ball), and came to deal with it all quite well.
Epic's first attempts to play with Romeo were thwarted when he became entranced with Romeo's (abnormally long) tongue, and decided that he would find out what it was in the only way that puppies now how ... with his teeth.
Romeo put a stop to that right away! And Epic turned his affections towards Gio.
Romeo finally did indulge Epic with some play, eventually.
But it was a lot more fun to just chase Gio around, mainly because Gio always has a ball in his mouth (BALLBALLBALLBALLBALL!!! *gasp* BALLBALLBALLBALLBALL!!). For a little guy, Epic has already learned all the important things in life ... ball drive and tug drive!
And being the stellar teachers that they are, the Shelties took it upon themselves to teach Epic a few other essentials.
Like how to scope out a good tree for peeing on.
Or which blades of grass are the tastiest.
Of course, there was also lots of running. And whenever possible, full body contact running.
I think they are a pretty cute group, don't you? (Of course, I may be just a teensy bit biased.)
