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to entice him to eat his own bowl instead.

The two of them are such good friends that when they were at day care together one afternoon he refused to leave Ripken behind when it was time to go home. The young woman who went to get three dogs to go home only had two leads with her, so she took Trooper and another dog. Trooper pulled out of her hands and went back to the run where Ripken was waiting and sat down. No guessing what he was trying to say then. "I'm not leaving without my friend. Period." She had to trade out dogs and take Ripken and Trooper together.

His loyalty to his best friend came a week after my pug died, and he grieved for her as much as I did. Ripken had been away for two months at that point while his owner was deployed, and so the first week Tink was gone, he only had me and the cats to comfort him. And cats don't count as far as Trooper is concerned. Before she died, he stood a protective stand over both of us, facing the door, facing the vet techs waiting to ease her pain. When I held her in my arms after she died so that he could see her, he sniffed her a few times and then turned his back to us and laid down facing the wall. He knew. She was gone. So when Ripken returned, he was overjoyed to see him again and there wasn't any way he would leave his best friend behind that day.

When he is puzzled by something he hears or sees, he looks to me as if to ask "What is it?" so I tell him and he goes on with his play. When he sees or hears something he feels is a threat, he will stand between me and it until he - we - determine whether it is safe or not. I have learned to read his facial expressions as one would watch the expressions on a baby, or a deaf person to see the unspoken "inflection" of their words. The sign for angry can be read in many ways depending on the facial expressions. The same is with Trooper. When his brow wrinkles, I know he is worried or afraid. When his ears pull back, that fear could be turning to a flight or fight response.

In fact, now that I think about it, I think my dog communicates better than any of my husbands ever did!

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