On our recent trip to my parents’ house, Ella was lucky enough to have a special playmate for a few days (and I’m not talking about Jenna who I think we can all agree is not interested in being considered for the “playmate” role). My brother and sister-in-law brought their dog Kasey, a 3 year old chocolate lab who had no idea what she was in for.

Meet Kasey

Ella was sidling up to Kasey and relentlessly instigating play fights from the second poor Kasey set paw in the house. Although Kasey has calmed down a lot over the last year or two, she was just as devilish as Ella as a puppy and pretty quickly rediscovered the imp within.

Thank goodness my mom was so preoccupied with a busy last week of teaching and retirement parties that she wasn’t around for a lot of their mischief. In the end, nothing was broken and there were no carpet stains that couldn’t be treated, but I’m not going to say there weren’t some close calls. One of my mother’s friends who roasted her at a retirement gathering that week characterized my mom in this way: “She is not satisfied with the cleanliness of her house unless there are visible vacuum lines on the carpet”. That is the truest statement ever uttered. So you can imagine what my mom thought when she saw the vacuum lines replaced with paw prints.

Here they are in the dining room - watch out for the crystal!

And here they are in the living room - which shouldn’t be called a living room because ordinarily no one sets foot - let alone lives - in it.

And finally, here’s “Ella and Kasey - Round 1″. My favorite part is the butt sniff at the end of the round…Dogs will be dogs…