BACK YARD BALL

The weather can't seem to make up its mind whether it's winter, spring or summer. At least it hasn't snowed. However, it's been definitely a rather cool few weeks. Occasionally the sun makes an appearance, blue skies break out and the temperature creeps upward. But not for long. Then we're back to brrrrr.

Today at noon, it was quite nice. No wind. Sun high above. Blue skies dotted with just a few puffy white clouds. Temperature—quite nice, thank you. A perfect time to toss a few balls out in the back yard for the dogs. It doesn't seem to matter if you have three balls (i.e., one for each dog); they inevitably all want to play with ONE ball—the one that the other has possession of.

Zack is probably the best "ballplayer" of the bunch. He loves to chase them down, and he also does tremendous leaps in the air in attempts to capture the demon rubber bouncer. Not always successfully, mind you. More often than not, his mouth snap is just a shade off in timing and the ball goes karooming off his nose in some unexpected direction...and he's off in hot pursuit of it again. Below, his gaze is riveted on the ball hucker, waiting for the release. Then he's off...to chase his elusive quarry.

Abby occasionally scores a direct catch or a successful dash and grab. She usually relinquishes her prize, however, when Gemma comes barrelling in at full throttle to steal it. This generally leaves Abby looking very perplexed and mournful (see below).