How tiny her little puppy legs are.....and how fast they can move when she wants to get up and go! A regular little speed demon in miniature. I walked....Kimi ran. She ran circles around me. She ran circles around my son....and often at the same time tying us together in a bond I had never expected. I've always wanted to remain close to my children, but even THAT was an extreme! Gives new meaning to "the ties that bind"!

As she would run along beside us her fluffy, little head was in constant motion...left to right...right to left....up, down....anywhere and everywhere it could turn. She wasn't about to miss a single sight or delicious smell. It is no wonder she ran into everything. My legs, Jeff's legs, her own legs (and how she did this I have no idea, but leave it to Kimi.....if there is a will, she WILL definitely do it!). And each time she ran into something or tripped and fell she landed with the same expression. "I meant to do that". Daring us to laugh perhaps? (so sorry Kimi dear, but when you trip so comically we must laugh). During all of this we discovered two things. One, she can not be a pure bred Sheltie. I have come up with two new breeds for everyone to consider, of which Kimi is mixed with both.

One is a *mud puppy*......if there is mud anywhere to be found she will use her nose...much like a Sheltie, to find it. She sniffs it out...but of course she is not one to be fooled by appearances alone. After sniffing it, she has to taste it....and not any too delicately either. Not my Kimi. She scoops up a whole mouth full....rolls it around her tongue...making sure it is of the right consistency by whether it sticks to her teeth or not. Taste isn't as important as consistency. After making sure it passes the taste-test, she has to check out it's "dig-ability". By this she tries to determine if it will 'pack' into the toenails tightly enough (for future snacks as she cleans her feet), if it will cling to the fur at all..preferably up under the arm pits where mommy can't find it right away...and if it is soft enough to dig deeply. (One never knows what exciting things may be buried down deep...bones, bugs, sticks...anything edible will do)

The last test seems to be her favorite, and one done best when on a leash. While running along beside us, the very second she discovers the cool damp soil under her feet, she tucks her chin onto her chest, pushes hard with her back feet and executes a perfect summersault. One designed to ensure maximum coverage of mud across, around, on top of and underneath her person. Hence the name *mud puppy*. Might I add once she is well and truly covered in the icky gooey sticky stuff, she considers it a great insult if you attempt to wash it off. Sort of what a gold medallist must feel like if someone were to spit-clean their medal.

Now, as her mommy, I know it is my job to teach her better manners, but when she is laying there, totally content with life...and all the mud it has to offer....how can I discipline her? She is so blissfully unaware of what she REALLY looks like..... muddy tongue hanging out the side of her happily smiling face...eyes shining brightly with pure joy thru her mud covered fur, that I am oh, so tempted to join her. Being the 'adult' between the two, I have to maintain a decorum of maturity. Kimi, as it is obvious to all, does not suffer from the same affliction the rest of us do, and continues to happily summersault thru the puppyhood of her life. Proving to me that growing up is NOT all it is. The 'other' part of Kimi's breeding shines when there is no mud around. You know, I have studied her....to watch how she chooses her next 'victim'. Yet it remains a mystery to me. I have tried to figure out if there is a method to her madness, yet I can't find one. Perhaps it is a random act of choice...or maybe she sees things in her youth that I have grown to miss.

Once again she is happily running along beside me, daring life to pass her without notice...and laughing as it fails. Yes she laughs too, you may say her tongue is hanging out due to exercise or the heat of the day.....but knowing Kimi as I do I can see she is laughing at the pure joy of being a puppy. And I am jealous. As she runs she 'picks' out which rock she will attack next. They aren't all big, or round, or pretty....but they do have a common ground. They have been 'chosen' by Kimi. Without missing a step she scoops as she runs. Some rocks get carried along for the ride..I guess Kimi thinks relocation is her job too. Some she will lay down with immediately and 'crush' the evil demons from their hardened souls. (okay....maybe she just likes the way they crunch under her teeth, but as her mommy I am allowed to embelish the 'normal' things she does, much as YOU have done with your furless kids!) What shall remain a mystery forever...or until she learns to talk, and who knows...she never fails to surprise me with her intelligence and thirst for life, is why she picks the rocks she does. You can point one out to her and she will look at it...and then at you, and you can feel her thoughts. She is speaking with her eyes and says "ya....so...it's a rock. What of it?" And you feel pretty silly for making a big deal out of a stupid rock. Five feet from that point she will suddenly 'scoop' a rock from the ground....from a pile of other rocks, or where it lays alone and lonely. Why she choses to run with some (the taste maybe...have they been close to mud???) and to lay down with and chew furiously on others will stay buried in her heart as well. Such is the secret life of a *rock hound*.

So which group does she belong to? The Herding group? The Hound group? The Toy group? (as she seems to view all the world as one big toy to her)… Or a new one. The Mud group.

All I know is....if I knew then, what she seems to know about life at her young age of 9-1/2 weeks, I would NOT have been in such a hurry to grow up. But then my mom never let me play in the mud or eat rocks either. Makes me wonder just what it is I am missing out on in life. I can't remember having ever been as happy as Kimi is with something so simple. Until Kimi came along anyway. I may end up teaching her how to sit and stay, but she is teaching me how to see life in it's simplest, but purest form. The way life was intended to be seen.

Maybe the lesson in this story is to stop and smell the roses along the way......and don't forget to check out the mud underneath. One never knows what simple joy or pleasures it may hold.

May we all learn the important lessons in life from our fur-friends.

Kristi (who still sits in awe of this wonder-pup)
Kimi (who still sits in the mud and chews on rocks)