Eating the Fish

When I adopted Faith, Sheena told me that she likes to watch television. That doesn't quite capture it. Picture Faith, her nose pressed to the flat screen in total concentration. That wonderful head blocking your view of the show in question. Picture her at some point leaving scratches on the surface of your 42" LCD TV. Thankfully, scratches that are not visible from any reasonable viewing distance.

Yes, Faith watches TV. She is particularly captivated by dogs on TV, but intrigued by anything that moves like an animal. It doesn't stop there. She is fascinated by any reflective surface, and particularly loves to stare down my iPad and/or my Xoom tablet (I'm a software developer - gear is one of the curses of the profession). Or my phone. Or anything else with a screen. It's good for hours of entertainment.

The other night I stuck the Xoom on the charger, and left it display out leaning against the wall. I had downloaded an active wallpaper that shows an aquarium as the background screen on the homepage or the charging display. Touch the screen over a fish and the fish tries to swim away. I go to brush my teeth, and return to find Faith snapping at the display, trying to catch the fish. Thank doG for Corning's "Gorilla Glass". Maybe I should invest.

Hoping to avert damage, I turned the tablet to face the wall. Nope. Those pesky fish are in there somewhere. I'm lying on the bed reading a paper or browsing the web. Those fish must still be in there. Shut the tablet down and close the case. Faith is convinced the damned fish are in there. She's entirely happy to spend 45 minutes staring down the (shut down) tablet in its case, waiting for the fish (or so I infer). Drooling on the case all the while. I try to read. She shifts to lean over my shoulder and drool on the display. I push her head away and sign "no". She backs off. For all of five seconds. Then she ever so deftly noses under my arm to get her snout up against the display again. Bother my person. There are FISH in that box. TASTY fish.

But there is more. Most dogs bark out the window at things happening on the street. They hear a truck or a dog, rush to the window, and assert their turf by barking at the offender on "their" street. Not Faith. Oh no. First, she can't hear the truck coming. Second, she's far too comfortable to bother with rushing to the window to see what's out there. Thankfully, she doesn't need to. Faith has deduced that a vehicle at night with lights on causes all sorts of moving shadows to go across the ceiling, that the presence of the car/truck can be inferred from the shadows, and that she need not leave the comfort of the bed before barking. The devilish details of confirming the presence of car or truck should be left to minions - such as Trevor. In fact, she's often barking at the car before Trevor confirms matters by looking out the window and joins in.


God I love her.