Birthday Celebration: Elliot

Elliot turned 4 years old on April 6.  He had a rough Birthday Celebration. An extra dog was in the house this weekend.  Dog-sitting for a long weekend, Elliot was a little jealous of how Lexi and the other dog played.  Elliot is a man’s dog and begrudgingly plays with Lexi because she is insistent. But Lexi had a friend that played roughly like her and Elliot didn’t like that either.  He did not get in the way of their playing but whined as he looked sad laying on the floor.

Outside Time

Taking the day off from my day-job, we spent a good amount of time outside.  My ‘rental dog’ was very active. So in addition to my two being very hyper, I tried to tire them out by letting them chase each other and occasionally throwing the frisbee.  Lexi spends all her time playing defense which basically means keeping Elliot from playing frisbee and this day was no exception.

Late afternoon, I did throw the frisbee for Elliot while Lexi wasn’t looking.  Elliot tore off to retrieve it. As he scooped up the frisbee from the ground, he started yelping very loudly.  I thought it was a tactic to scare Lexi off. Because it worked! But Elliot came back to me with his back leg up in the air.  He must have aggravated it with all of the outside activity. Definitely out of shape from the winter months, he needs more activity before the pool opens to gain back his summer activity level.  This ended play for Elliot.

Pet Store

Once Daddy got home and we ate dinner, we leashed up Elliot (and only Elliot) and took him on a car ride to his favorite place: the pet store. Below is a short video of what he does when we pull up in front of the pet store.

He scoured the aisles until he came across the perfect toy.  We knew even as we made the purchase, that princess Lexi would confiscate this toy and allow Elliot to play with it when she deemed necessary.  A special treat was picked out too. With toy and bone purchased, we made our way home.

Home

Once at home, we gathered around the table to give him a homemade cupcake, just like we did when he turned one.   We sang and he ate the cupcake right from the table. This is why he thinks it’s ok to take stuff off the table occasionally.

We hung the new snake over Elliot and he walked around with it, for only about a minute before Lexi dragged the snake off of him.  She claimed it as hers and growled if either Elliot or our ‘rental dog’ came near it. We promptly took the snake away and will return it to him once our visiting dog goes back to her parents.

All the dogs including Elliot slept soundly on the floor as we watched TV that Friday night.  It may not have been Elliot’s best birthday, but he was plenty tired. He loved his trip to the pet store and got to spend some time with daddy and of course me.  He would prefer to take his ride with daddy strictly, but then no one would be able to document his birthday celebration.

Other Celebrations

Check out other ways to celebrate with your pet.  Or see Alex’s Birthday Celebration.