Bayley's Dinner Guests

Bayley LOVES to entertain. Any time we have visitors at the house, she gets so excited that someone has come to visit her. Bayley cheerfully greets our visitors with lots of jumping, running, and general mayhem (that is, once we let her loose). So, you can imagine how great Bayley's delight when we had several guests over for dinner last week.

My coworkers and I enjoy each other's company enough that sometimes, we get together outside of work. Recently, we decided that we would have a monthly dinner for the group of us that have become good friends. It's my family, my sweet German coworker and her family, my spunky Vietnamese coworker and her family, and my always supportive, now works in Lewisville, coworker and her boyfriend. My sweet German coworker has been hounding me for months to make her homemade pasta, so when we decided to do a monthly dinner, I quickly volunteered my house for the first of the gatherings.

I planned, I prepared, I cleaned, I shopped, and I cooked. In short, I got excited! I like company just as much as Bayley, I think! On the day of the big event, I spent all day making pasta. I made homemade meatballs, tomato sauce, pesto sauce, and lots of noodles, both gluten free and regular. One thing you have to understand about homemade pasta is that it is a lot of preparation work. First, you make the dough and then you let it sit for a few hours. After this, you roll the dough into long strips and finally you cut the dough into the noodles. Bayley loves when I make pasta from scratch because invariably, some scrap noodles fall on the floor and she takes great delight in this.

So, as I was rolling the noodles on the day in question, Bayley was laying at attention in the dining room, maybe 10 feet from my work space. I had rolled several strips of pasta and they were lying out on the counter waiting for the next step. I saw Bayley eying the pasta quite surreptitiously but was not at all prepared for what happened next. Of the several pieces laid out on the counter, one piece was hanging just a few inches over the edge of the counter. When rolling pasta, one needs both hands: one to hold the pasta to feed it through the roller and one to hold the pasta as it comes out the other side. I think my clever pouch observed this fact and, taking advantage of timing,made her move. All of a sudden, while I was mid roll through a piece of pasta, Bayley darts over, quick as lightening, jumps up to the counter, grabs the piece of pasta hanging over the edge of the counter, and carries it off to the dining room with her. Shocked and amazed, I dropped my pasta, ran after her and grabbed the kidnapped piece away from Bayley. She looked up at me innocently but responded immediately when I told her, "Go lay down." Bayley dejected went to lay in her crate where I made her stay for the next several minutes.

After this adventure, I became nervous about Bayley's behavior once guests began to arrive. Hoping she would behave herself, I continued to prepare for dinner. And then, the time came. All my guests began to come to the door. Among the guests were my spunky Vietnamese coworker's 2 year old and my sweet German coworker's 8 month old. Of these two guests I was particularly nervous due to the uncertainty about my dog's behavior.

Dinner progressed wonderfully, however. Bayley loved her guests, especially the 2 year old and 8 month old. The two year old chased Bayley through the house all night. And Bayley chased the 8 month old around the floor. The kids also truly enjoyed Bayley's toys, most notably her Kong (much to their parents' chagrin). Bayley enjoyed sniffing the kid's toys but did not touch. Overall, I was quite proud of my dog! She even handled it like a champ when we had to lock her crate and put up her water dish because the 8 month old wanted to play in both of them.

My guests went home, I praised my dog, and we all went to bed. The next day, I was going about my normal daily tasks when Bayley came into the room, playfully happy, and dropped at my feet a new toy. Upon inspection, I realized it was a small, red triangle that belongs to one of the 8 month old's toys. I praised Bayley for bringing me the toy and put it away to give to my sweet German coworker the next day.

Upon arriving at work the next day, I proudly present to my sweet German coworker the found triangle and make her guess where I found it. She says, "In her water bowl? In her crate? In her toy box?" I tell her, "In her mouth! She brought it to me!" My coworker's reply? "It was really nice of her to bring it to you because we looked all over the house for it before we left and couldn't find it. I think she hid it."

Bayley does have a habit of hiding her toys around the house, so I just had to laugh.

That Bayley, she sure is sneaky.