Kai and children

We live near and elementary school and since Kai was 5 months old she has greeted the children through the fence. She sits and waits for them to go to and from school, that is on the mornings she decides to get up by 7:30. If she is not fence the children call her name and I have been asked on several occasions where Kai has been. She has also met up with children in the street and I have taught her on most occasions to sit or at least not jump on the kids. But I have never really had a child younger than 10 in the yard, so I was a little skeptical when a mom whose older kids were weeding my garden also left her 5 year old. But I need not have worried  because they became fast friends and Kai did something with that boy that I have never seen her do with the adults. When we play with Kai she gets her favorite toy, a Kong with fabric and strips hanging down, after a lively tug and war she releases it. When we throw it she brings it back, but again we have to play tug of war. When Kai plays tug of war she really swings her head and on many occasions I have had to drop the toy because she jerks my arm. So when the child picked up the toy I was ready for Kai to grab it and tug to roughly, but she didn't do it. She would touch the toy with her teeth gently and then back away, releasing the toy. She did this the whole time the child had the toy. I was very proud of my Kai for being so gentle.

Aping my husband

Kai has a favorite chair in the living room, and yes I know that you are not suppose to let dogs on the furniture, she likes to curl up in it while I am reading in the chair across from her. My husband has a favorite chair in the TV room, one that I bought for his birthday. When anyone sits in my husbands chair he looks at them until they move. Yesterday, I flopped down in the Kai chair to read the mail, and Kai came in the room. First she went to my usual chair and looked at it, then she looked at me, tilted her head, looked at my chair, then back to her chair. I could almost hear the what do you think you are doing wheels churning in her head. So I got up and moved to my usual chair, where Kai promptly jumped up into the chair I just vacated. Very much my husbands move. You got to love both human and dog.

Love

My Kai has calmed down considerably from the first time we brought her home. My daughter who just got back from England noticed it immediately as she no longer performed the noddle, wiggle dance while sitting in your lap. Kai is definitely a love bug. She would never let you hold her without wiggling, but since my son has been home,  she allows him to pick her up and cuddle. Yesterday she dissolved into his shoulder and stayed put, something that would have her lunging for the floor before. My daughter sat on the couch the other day and even though Kai likes the TV couch for herself, she jumped up to a place that was snug just to be close to her. Kai also worries about us when we are gone, you can hear it in her woeful bark when she sees us, I still think it sounds like "Where were you?" She is our little love bug and I am glad we were fortunate enough to find such a loving dog tucked up in rescue facility in a remote part of Virginia/West Virginia.