My, What Big Ears You Have...

...not literally, of course.  Alfie's ears are pretty standard-issue medium floppy dog ears.  But he sure listens well with them!  And you don't have to be talking to him, for him to listen.  He's a confirmed eavesdropper.  I've got tons of stories but I'll just share a few.

Currently, we're staying at my Mom's house while waiting for the Austin house to sell (good news:  it's under contract again, should close by mid-April.  Yeah!!)  All that to say, our living arrangements are a bit makeshift.  Charissa's bunking in Mom's office, where she's got a nice air mattress set up on the floor.  One night she was talking to Tim, Alfie resting a few feet away, seemingly asleep.  She remarked that although Alfie's really good about staying off normal furniture, she thought it was cute how he liked to curl up on her air mattress since it was on the floor...he  always puts his head on the pillow, just like a person would.  Now this may be a coincidence -- but at that, Alfie stood up, looked at her, and quietly walked down the hall to the office, nudged the door open, and curled up on her bed...head on the pillow...as if to say, What a good idea!  Let me demonstrate!  Tim just shook his head and said:  "Umm..that's creepy!" 

Ah...this is the life!  Maybe when we move I'll get my own air mattress with pillow and stuffed bunny rabbit...

Then one day I was talking to someone -- can't remember if it was Mom, or Tim maybe -- and mentioned that "Paul's coming over."  Immediately Alfie, who loves my brother Paul, jumped up, tail high and wagging, and proceeded circling expectantly at the door...my attempts to explain that I didn't know exactly when Paul was coming over fell a little flat and in fact, only resulted in getting him more excited! 

On another occasion, Alfie was being naughty and stole one of Katharine's stuffed animals.  We were doing our level best not to reward him with the attention he desired, and I told Mom, "Just don't look at him, he'll drop it when he sees we don't care."  So we were ignoring him totally, and Mom remarked to me, "Well, it's sure a good thing he never grabs books!  We have books everywhere, and if he got one of those we'd have to get it back from him."  Ohhh noooo...that was SO the wrong thing to say.  I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it with my own eyes, but Alfie just looked at her...then this mischievous gleam came into his eyes as if, Oh what a good idea!  I'd never thought of that!  He trotted to the other room...and pranced back triumphantly with, oh YES, a BOOK.  And I do believe that is the very first time he'd stolen a book! 

So, all I'm saying is, if you ever come to visit me just watch what you say.  Don't say how great it is that Alfie doesn't chew socks, or steal the remote.  One more thing: tell me exactly when you're coming, so I don't accidentally mention it to Alfie an hour ahead of time!  I promise, we'll all be much happier...