My Favorite Game

Mum says Duncan's dad is going to play tag with me. I love tag! It's my favorite game. I hope Duncan will play too. Especially hide-and-seek tag, which I play with Mum and Dad a lot when we go to the creek that sometimes disappears. We'll be all walking along together and I'll suddenly notice Dad isn't there anymore. Mum will tell me to go look for him, and the game begins. Sometimes I see him hide, but I pretend I don't know where he is, because I don't want to make him feel bad that he's not very good at this game. I race back and forth, looking behind all the trees for him, then I stand and look puzzled for a bit (so he thinks he's found a really good hiding place), before rushing up to him with a huge grin on my face. But before he can tag me, I wheel around and dash helter-skelter through the sandy lanes, in between Mum and Dad's legs, faking turns and getting just close enough to let them think they're going to get me. I can run like the wind and turn on a dime. The wind flaps my ears back and sometimes I get so excited by it all that I have to stop right where I am and dig a hole in the sand. Tag is the best game ever. I can't wait to play it with Duncan's dad. I wonder if he's coming to the house to play it?

Oh, Mum just told me that this is a different sort of tag. We don't go anywhere to play it.It's not about running and chasing at all. I'm supposed to tell you all seven things that I love. That's easy. I should win this game hands down!

• I love chicken and going with Dad to pick it up from the store. I can smell it all the way home in the car, freshly cooked and full of juices. I sit like a good girl all the way home and Dad opens it just for me and gives me a strip from the breast. Yummy-do-s! One time Dad left the bag of cooked chicken in the car while he went somewhere. I tried really hard to stop myself, but that smell was so good and I was just going to have a little taste. When Dad came back, my head was so far into the bag I didn't even hear him.
• I love having a huge towel over my head when I come back from a walk in the rain. I get rubbled all over and then I slide along the carpet on my ear to make sure the last of the wet stuff is out of there.
• I love "leg hugs". Mum sits on the floor and I lie on my back between the length of her legs while she rubs my belly and scratches my chin, and rocks me from side to side. It's the best feeling in the world Mum's legs holding me tight and getting rubbled.
• I love camping and being able to sit outside near the tent, smelling all the new and different smells and watching all the outdoor life. Being outdoors is the best.
• I love to run. I can run like the wind. Running feels so good. It gets me everywhere really fast, which is good when I'm hot on the heels of a jack rabbit. I've even tried running in the water when I'm after a duck, but I can't go nearly as fast as when I'm on the trail.
• I love people, especially the people in my family, and all the people who come to see my mum and lie on her table. I especially like the kind of people who say "What a pretty girl she is!" and "Look, she wants to have a massage too!"
• I love snow. Snow is the best. I can play in the snow for hours and I don't ever get bored. I love the feel of it on my hot paws and the way it's so cool and crunchy when I lie down in it and roll around. If I get thirsty, I can eat some, or just dip the end of my nose in it and throw some up in the air. One time the snow got delivered right to our house and I could just go outside anytime I wanted and it was right there.
  

Mum says I'm supposed to choose seven people to play this new game of tag, but I think it will be more fun if I don't tell the seven people, then just start playing tag with them when they're not expecting it. Better start hiding.