Deer Shouldn't Talk

Last week we visited Cabela's...Alfie's first trip there.

Everything's more fun when Grandpa's here for a visit!

It's a great place for training, with a giant aquarium; taxidermy exhibits; elevators AND stairs for puppies to find and navigate; a cafe; and, usually, crowds of people too. First stop was the walk-thru aquarium...sorry, no good pictures of Alfie to share...but Katharine did almost get eaten by a giant catfish!

Close encounters of the catfish kind.

...Well, maybe not, but the big guy did seem to be following her around! Alf was kinda bored by it all. Next, it was off to Africa.

Um...are we sure it's a good idea to practice down/stay in front of this giant rhino?!

After that, I let Alfie find the elevator. I thought the puppies found elevators by the appearance of the doors...but as Grandpa pointed out, Alfie circled sniffing until he found it. Is there an elevator smell? I don't know. Anyway, he found it and we went up...and meandered around until...



[The video shows Alfie transfixed by an animatronic deer's head that is mounted up high near the ceiling. It's motion activated, so every time we start to move away we set it off again. Alfie's ears are flicking back and forth as he watches the deer's mouth and head move while it talks. He doesn't seem to like it, and yet he doesn't want to leave either!]

I've never seen a dog react to the talking deer quite like Alfie! One puppy I remember just sort of tuned the noise out and didn't look for its source; another one saw the talking head but was more interested in other things. Alfie spotted it immediately and didn't want to let it out of his sight! We stayed there the longest time, and even as we finally walked away he would turn around and peek at it some more over his shoulder. Funny puppy!

If they won't let me "speak," a deer should definitely not be allowed to talk!