Smartie

I think my IQ is higher than Dieter's. I'm not 100% positive, but I think it is. Some days, though, he's way ahead of me. Today was one of them.

Back story, to illustrate his smartie brains. He knows the names of a lot of his toys and will fetch them when asked: Red Thing, Baton Rouge, Holey Ball, Green Squeakie Ball, to name but a few.

He also knows a lot of words and phrases: "do you want..." (usually results in a head cock, which is incredibly cute), "go to your house" (today he did that command without directly being told to do so. He knew he was in trouble, so he went and sat in his kennel and tried to look angelic), "do you want a treat?" (usually followed by a dash to where the treat stash is housed), as well as sit, down, paw, high-five, etc.

But now he's figured out something that I think is fairly complex: that on Mondays after my volunteer stint, I get a Portillo's salad and a large iced tea. The tea comes in a white Styrofoam cup. And there's ice in the cup. Last week, midweek I got an iced tea from Chik Fil-A, and it also comes in a white Styrofoam cup that also contains ice. I finally noticed that Dieter was sitting in front of me, looking very intently at the cup. Then the light bulb came on and I said "Do you want an ice cube?"

"Do I??? Yesssss, pleeeeze!!"

So I handed him a little piece of ice, which he happily crunched up. When no more ice was forthcoming, he used his nose to nudge the bottom of the cup. "Um, I'd like another, don'tcha know."

Today being Monday, I got another Portillo's iced tea. Let's just see if he notices again, I think to myself. Of course he does and sits there doing the sad puppy dog eyes as he lovingly gazed at the cup.

Except today, he also tried to give me a lobotomy. Just as I started to sip from the straw, he bumped the bottom of the cup. A little harder and that straw would have gone up into my brain. I swear it could have happened.