Work smarter, not harder

As Malico digs, he enjoys the feel of the dirt against his small paws. The smell of earth permeates the air, filling his nostrils with each turn of the dirt and deep inhale of air. Ears twitches in the direction of his mother, pulling in the information as she speaks. Eyes dart up to watch her mouth so that he can catch the words that he misses while nodding in agreement. Tongue lolls happily out of the side of the mouth as he works, getting his coat nice and dirty as he ‘accidently’ flings dirt every once and while. Yeah, it means that he will get a dreaded bath when he gets home but that just makes the pup all the more determined to enjoy this trip to the fullest.

Once they have two decent sized piles of earth, Malico pauses in his digging to do as his mother instructs and takes the pail that she offers. Head tilts slightly as his ears stand tall, pulling the words deep into his crystal clogged ears as she talks. At her directions, the pup barks, “Okay!” before setting about the new task. Paws scoop up the loose earth and transfer it into the pails, making sure to get as much dirt into them as he can before standing to pick up the pail. As he grabs the handle in his jaws and moves to lift off the ground, Mal grossly underestimates how heavy the bucket is teeters sideways.

Eyes widen as he is forced to release his hold on the bucket to avoid spilling his handy work all over the ground as he plops heavily onto his side. Malico springs back up to his paws without a moment’s hesitation, growling low at the rude pail of dirt. Coming to stand behind it once more, the pup plants his paws shoulder width apart and huffs his determination at the bucket. Clasping the handle once more, Mal lifts while sinking his weight evenly into his paws. He grunts in success as the bucket lifts off the ground and he teeter and totters but successfully makes it to where his mother had directed him and easily dumps the dirt.

After a couple more trips, his mother arrives to help him move the last few pail-fulls of dirt. With the area looking less suspicious, Malico stands over their newly dug hole and wags. Manea’s voice pulls his attention back to where she stands with the sharp metal poles. Oh, he gets to decide? With an excited yip, the pup jumps down into the hole and begins stalking around the area. Tail is flagged and waving as he sticks his nose in the ground, getting it good and muddy because he can. First, he picks a spot in the middle of the hole and declares, “Here!” To emphasis his point the pup digs a little groove so that she can see where he wants it.

Without waiting for his mother, he bounds forward away several steps before saying, “And here!” Same as before he marks the spot for her before stepping away and circling back to the middle spike. From there, he bounds the same amount of space in the other direction before declaring, “Here!” With the spots picked out, and marked, Malico moves to begin the scramble back up and out of the hole. The boy’s puppy pudge gets in the way and forces him to slide back down a couple times but hopefully his mom will take pity on him and help.


"Malico Mendacium"