But I am. Really.
Mr. McAllister has really settled into his "retirement home" here. At first he was happy to eat and sleep and stretch his legs from time to time.
As he got more acclimated to The Home, though, he did what I imagine many "grey lions" do — he looked around and said, "I'm not washed up. No, sir! I'm a collie, by golly, and I may sleep 16 hours a day, but I know how to do collie things!"
So, he looked around for animals to herd. Although there are bison just down the road, the only animals in our household (besides him) are of the two-legged variety.
When we're home, we don't like being rounded up and nudged from room to room.So, Alison found some stuffed sheep toys, made specifically for dogs, at the local market. She didn't have high hopes necessarily that Mac would like a piece of woolly cloth in his mouth, but the price was right.
McAllister took a look and a sniff, tried one out, and took to it!
How exciting for him, and how good for us.Sometimes he will play "catch" with a sheep; sometimes it's just nearby. When I think he's lost interest, I will come across him taking a nap with the sheep just under his head.
It's been a joy to see his herding instincts transferred to more appropriate objects than us.
(Photography note: The glow in Mac's eyes in the first photo is toned way down from the original. Like most dogs, he has very reflective retina, and they don't get corrected with automatic red-eye removal tools because they're not red, they're green. I was able to cut out the "cujo" look just a bit, but there it is.)
