Perseverance

I think we could all take a lesson from Abby. The other night she was begging for me to throw the stick to her. She is very athletic, and often catches it mid-air. When the stick ended up in the neighbor's tree, I thought it was a good time to take a break. I went down to the hammock and started reading my book. Abby kept searching for the stick. She would look up in the tree, circling it. The tree was too tall, but she noticed a low branch on my peach tree. She jumped and landed with a branch of the peach tree. I was not about to reward a peach tree attack, so I wouldn't throw it (or any other stick) to her. As I lay there, she kept bringing me tiny sticks from the yard until I had a small pile.

Later that night, we took her on a walk, using stick fetching as a reason for her to return to us. Near the end of the walk she was running for the stick, grabbing it in her mouth just before she hit the curb. She bled a bit, but was still eager to play fetch. We didn't realized until later that she had punctured the bottom of her mouth. Poor girl.

Since then, I won't throw a stick to her - but have switched to a ball. The other day on our walk, I couldn't find a ball, so we went with nothing to fetch. She found a stick, but I wouldn't throw it to her. She kept dropping it at my feet, but I would walk by saying, "No stick, Abby." On our walk, she found three groups of kids who would throw the stick to her. She was tempted to stay with them, but she did consent to continue the walk with me even though there was no stick throwing.