a new frontier

There's a new frontier in Baxter's life, and it's officially called Up. For the last two years, I could easily hide the things I wanted Baxter to forget about or leave alone, just by putting it high off the floor. Special playtime toys would magically disappear when our playtime was over, all with the help from a quick diversionary tactic and handoff to the nearest piece of furniture over three feet tall. My little rube would look at me in amazement as I offered up both hands, empty as could be on both the front and back. Stunned, Baxter would often race off in search of his toy gone amber alert, certain that it was still out there, somewhere, just waiting to be mauled.

I blame the squirrels for opening my innocent boy's eyes to the world Up There. Fooled once when a squirrel took a ninety degree turn up a tree, Baxter might have been fooled again early on, but nowadays there's no doubt that Baxter knows that Up is a fine place to look for things that might interest him, that might have otherwise disappeared.

I figured out Baxter had developed his new superpowers over these past two days, when it became obvious that Baxter's source of evening antsy pants wasn't at ground level and it wasn't by the front door. Nope, there Baxter sat, in the family room looking up at the sideboard, happy and hopeful that I would give him his blue ballie that I had earlier "hidden" out of sight for my height challenged buddy. A fluke, I thought. He must have smelled it, as much as he slobbers on that thing.

The second day, Baxter antsied around the Christmas tree, having spied his Christmas Bunny toyfriend sloppily placed atop a nearby wicker table placed there for all gifts we didn't want Baxter to know about. Baxter shifted his weight from paw to paw and whined ever so gently, an indication of his deep and burning desire to be given time to properly destuff what he knew to be his toy. Hm, how bout that, I thought but quickly forgot about as we played with Christmas Bunny again, now only ten days before he should be actually playing with it.

I finally clued in to Baxter's new superpowers later that same day in the early evening, when I let our tiny hunter romp out back. Squirrels were high above in the treetops, busy making repairs to their nests from the wind and rains we had earlier in the week. And I stood, impressed as I watched my little wolf quickly hone in on his prey, stare up at them, follow them from the ground while the squirrels bounced from tree to tree bringing twigs and branches back to their abode.

Unsuccessful in actually convincing a squirrel to come down for a real romp in the leaves, but exhilarated nevertheless, Baxter came inside from his hunt. And that's when I caught Baxter, looking up with nose held high and sniffing about in the living room. Searching, it would seem, for all the toys and rawhide that have gone missing in his life these past two years. A new frontier of discovery for my enlightened little friend to explore.