Dogs

Elliot has a love-hate relationship with canines, loves some, hates some.  It's been this way as long as I can remember.  Luckily, he loves our dog, Pip.  Pip, on the other hand, doesn't seem to take a lot of notice Elliot.  Sure, he'll run into the room if Elliot's crying, but that's about as far as the love extends.  Pip insists on barking while Elliot's asleep and ever single time the camcorder goes on.  Mainly, Pip just tries to stay out of Elliot's way, which means he tends to spends quite a bit of time in our room.  Pip also likes to play a game of cat and mouse with Elliot.  Elliot comes near, Pip moves and lays down, Elliot chases him there, Pip moves again and on and on.  Elliot loves to watch his "deedee" race around. 

When it comes to food the two seem to like the other's food best.  Pip tries to hang out by Elliot's side during mealtime for the inevitable spill or dropped food.  We're doing out best to teach Elliot that intentionally dropping food isn't a good idea and sometimes have to put Pip outside during mealtime, but bring him right back in for cleanup.  Elliot reciprocates and goes to Pip's dish whenever possible to splash in the water and eat the delectable nuggets Pip's dropped on the floor by his bowl.  This is, by the way, the only form of meat he's eatten, if he's actually been able to sneak some down before we take it out of his mouth. 

Pip isn't the only dog in Elliot's life, Jeffer, Tim & Lisa's dog, is more tolerant than Pip and more interested in Elliot.  Elliot's gotten many a face washing from Jeffer.  Elliot loves both Pip and Jeffer and while Pip is skinny and Jeffer a bit husky, they're both medium-sized mostly black dogs. 

This love, however, does not extend to all dogs.  Big dogs, he loves, medium-sized dogs, he loves, small dogs freak the baby out.  We first noticed this when we went to visit my friend Ali, who has two Shi-tzus.  Elliot was only five months old at the time, but he was positively terrified of her two dogs, especially the smaller, lighter colored one.  We contemplated, was it because they were white and the other dogs he's been around were darker or was it because they were smaller?  The answer to that came last weekend when we were visiting my aunt and uncle, who were taking care of their "granddog" a tiny Yorkie.  Elliot was totally freaked out by this little bitty dog and started crying when he saw him.  Later on as he got a little more accustomed to Tucker, he'd chase him, but would start to whine if he got too close.  Case closed.  Apparently small dogs are just scary.