Easter Doodle

We'd just spent 12 hours in the car. My dog, Merlin, does get to empty himself and go for a sniff every so often at rest areas, but now that we were finally home he got the zoomies, running around the yard uncontrollably. When we finally settled in the house, he looked longingly at the 'treat' drawer and whimpered.

I picked out his favorite goodie. He took the treat from my hand, quickly dropping it on the floor. Then he pounced at it, picked it up and threw it a few feet away, then pounced again and threw it up in the air playfully. Eventually he ate it and looked at me like he wanted to play. I had things to do, so I gave him a rawhide bone to keep him busy for a spell. He threw it in the air a few times and finally set about chewing on it.

I sat down to get the computer going so I could tend to email on a big screen. Merlin came in, eventually finishing his rawhide and settled nose to me on the floor. Every now and then he'd whisper "Ruf" at me as if to say, "'Cmon dad, lets play!"

I looked over at him and said, "In a minute."

He took this to mean "Game on!"

He sprung to his feet and pounced on the first thing he saw, which happened to be a colored Easter Egg shell we'd made as a family over 25 years ago. My wife had put them out for the grand-kids. This one had escaped from the display onto the floor. Merlin grabbed the egg in his mouth and threw it across the floor, at which time I thought I was going to be dead meat. That egg was labeled by my daughter as 'Spring 1991'.

Ready to be in for a royal lecture from my wife for letting Merlin destroy such a treasure, I gingerly picked the egg up to see if I could somehow restore it to a semblance of it's original condition.

But the egg shell was unharmed. Even in his most enthusiastic moments, Merlin was still as gentle as ever. Then again, how could one expect anything else from a Golden Doodle?

Merlin and wife Suzy during the 12 hours on the road.