Lucy's new best friend

So the weather has finally started to warm the last couple of weeks. It's been so nice and feels very well earned after the weather we've suffered this year. As a result of the weather, everyone has been out and about and we are meeting our neighbors. Actually, we'd met each of the neighbors on either side of us when we first moved in, but as it has been winter we've not run into them again because everyone's been tucked up indoors.

And Lucy has also discovered the neighbors, and has in turn acquired a best friend! It doesn't really seem right to call them 'best friends' as the relationship borders on 'unhealthy' -- they are downright obsessed with each other! Next door has a yellow lab who is one year old. We share a line of fencing with them, and all this time neither Lucy nor I even realized there was a dog there at all. The owners had told John they had a dog the first time he met them (when we first moved in), but we never saw her or heard her so I started to think she didn't exist.

Then the weekend before last they discovered each other, and it's been mayhem ever since! Whenever Lucy goes out she goes to the fence to see if Macy is there (yes, that's right -- Lucy and Macy, even the names are similar. They also have a cat called Abbey). If they are out at the same time there is digging going on on both sides of the fence. Macy is a big digger; luckily Lucy is still an ametuer and can't dig as much as fast. When they are out at the same time and we've all got time for them to have a play session, we open up the gate in the line of fence we share and they run and run and run and run and wrestle each other and jump over each other and run some more and Lucy steals Macy's bones and they chase each other to try to get the bones away from each other and it's all so much fun!!!! They have an absolute ball together, it's so funny to watch them. And it completely knackers Lucy out which is always nice when we're ready for her to come in and settle down!

Tonight John told me that Lucy was outside and actually managed to dig her way through so she could escape into Macy's yard, and Macy wasn't even there to egg her on! Usually they don't start digging until they are both out there trying to get to each other. So that's a bit worrying now that she has managed to get through because now you feel like you have to watch her all the time while she's out there. She is so cheeky. John has covered the hole with heavy logs (there were already logs blocking the hole they've been digging, but they were light enough for her to work around apparently) so she can't get through that way anymore, but the worry is she will start digging somewhere else. So we're still trying to work out the kinks to maximize the positive elements of their mutual obsession with each other. As with most things, it's a work in progress!