Our little engineer (or how June turned Pepper into a circus dog)

Everyone who knows Pepper knows that he doesn't do tricks. He doesn't fetch, doesn't roll over, doesn't howl to get a treat. He just looks at you with those beautiful puppy dog eyes and yeah, he gets what he wants. June isn't buying it. Recently, while the rest of us weren't looking, she rearranged ALL of our living room furniture and set up the most amazing trick for Pepper: the hula-hoop jump. I took one look at it, smiled encouragingly, and said, "Great work, honey, it's worth a try." Secretly I thought it would never work. Pepper has never done anything except sit for a treat. Now he's gonna jump through a hoop that's more than a foot off the ground? Notice that she put a stack of books under the hoop - no sliding underneath for Pepper!

June ran to get Pepper's treats, with Pepper at her heels, thinking that all he had to do was sit and she'd deliver. Wrong-o. He followed her back into the living room, where she somehow got him on one side of the hoop and her on the other. Then Pepper pulled a fast one. He outmaneuvered the hoop, slipped through a hole in the barricade June had built and grabbed the treat from her hand. Score one for Pepper. June wasn't giving up. She reinforced the barricade and tried again, coaxing Pepper to jump. AND HE DID! I nearly fell over. Then she made the hoop higher. AND HE DID IT AGAIN! While June ran to get more treats, I grabbed the camera hoping to capture this amazing feat by Pepper, the circus dog. But all I got were shots of his tail after he had jumped through. So, you'll just have to believe me.

The stunt

The engineer and her helper

Decisions, Decisions.

(Conversation, two days ago)
June: Mama, I just don't know what I want to be when I grow up. There are so many choices!!!
Mama: Well, what are your options?
June: Ballerina. Tennis Star. Mom. Cheerleader.
Mama: Those are all good choices.
June: Yeah, but I think I'm going to be a cheerleader.

(Tonight, after reading a book about dinosaurs at bedtime)
June: I think I want to be a paleontologist.
Mama: Not a cheerleader?
June: Well, I don't know. I don't think there's anything left for a paleontologist to discover.
Mama: You mean, "sk-duver"? (June's new word. She invented it a few nights ago when she made up her own card game and called it "sk-duver" by accident instead of discover. Love it!)
June: Yeah, I think I'm going to be a cheerleader.

Rah! Rah!