We live in a townhouse, and in these pictures you can see a white vinyl fence. That fence belongs to one of our neighbors and it runs the length of our yard on the left. The neighbors on the right also have a fence, not as tall and not white vinyl, that runs the length of our yard on the right. Therefore, for my first birthday, Mom and Dad bought some fence posts and coated wire fencing and closed in the back of our yard so that I could have a nice place to go out and play and run without having to be leashed.

So, Mom has been trying to get me to play ball with her out in the back yard. She takes a tennis ball out when we go out, and she stops halfway down the steps while I stop at the bottom of the steps and look up at her expectantly. Then she throws the ball and I run after it. In the above photo, I am approaching the ball.

In the photo above, you can see that I am sniffing around the ball.

In this last photo, I am walking away from the ball. We have stray cats in our neighborhood and I’d rather sniff for them than play ball with Mom. Mom has even come out into the yard, picked the ball up, and tried to get me to catch it when she throws it up in the air. If I do decide to pick the ball up, I don’t take it to Mom — not even for a treat, (and yes, she tried to get me to play ball by offering treats to me too). Instead, I play keep away. I take the ball and run away from Mom and drop the ball somewhere in the yard.

But I do play fetch in the house with my rubber balls and rubber bones. I run from the living room to the dining room and back and often leap onto the love seat like a super hero.

I don’t really know why I don’t want to play ball outside in the back yard. Maybe it’s just because I have the freedom to run a longer distance, and when mom acts like she’s going to chase me and encourages me to run, I will do that!