Today is a day of lasts and firsts.  We began our last trial of the year this morning, our local fall NADAC.  I love this trial, and Dunc loves these courses because there aren’t any pesky tables or teeters to slow him down.  He must have tied on his Go Fast shoes this morning, because he was flying today.

Desmond also got to spend his first full day together with us, and he was a gem.  He snoozed in his crate in between charming everyone he met.  I let him watch a couple of dogs run from the vantage point of my arms, and he was riveted!  He had the same look on his face that I saw on a baby bird dog the first time he saw a pheasant flush.

All of that would be enough, but this evening while I was letting the boys do hot laps in the yard, a magical moment happened.  Duncan and Desmond started to play together.  Dunc is the boy we affectionately call Captain No Fun, because usually when two other dogs play, he wades in the middle, barking, clearly telling all parties to ‘break it up, move along, this is a zero fun zone.’  Des has been playing with our girl and Boxer since day one, but Dunc has generally avoided him, as he does most dogs.

Did you ever see the first of the ‘new’ Star Wars movies with all the CG silliness and that hideous Jar Jar Binks?  Ignore that and fast forward to the scene where Yoda battles the evil Darth so-and-so.   Yoda starts jumping and spinning and becomes a little green blur. Duncan looked like a little merle version of Yoda (without the light saber) when playing with Des.  He would crouch, then leap and spin, then circle and leap straight up like he was spring-loaded.  I’m not sure if this is normal Aussie play since I’ve never really seen Dunc play with anyone but our Frenchie, and she has a full-contact-tackle brand of play all her own.

Of course, the moment passed, and Des made off with Duncan’s favorite ball, so the détente was temporary.  But…the Fun Police put his badge away for a little while.  What a lovely thing to witness.

I took a few pictures of them, unfortunately the light was fading and they are a little blurry, but they’re still special to me.