In celebration of National Cheeseball Day, I’d like to tell you about our cheeseball brother, angel Lemmy. Spoiler alert: Lemmy did not like this crunchy treat. In fact, he detested cheeseballs, which led to quite a stir in his puppy kindergarten class.
To fully appreciate this story, you must understand that Lemmy was a very fussy eater. A fact that Mom tried to warn his teacher about, but she ignored. Instead she happily paraded him to the front of the class to demonstrate the “sit” command, to which Lemmy, being a smart puppy, had already mastered. To reward him, the teacher gave him a cheeseball puff, that Lemmy promptly spit out. Now here’s the thing about cheeseballs. When spit out at the right force, it will bounce and roll across the room like a ping pong ball, which was another skill Lemmy had apparently mastered at his young age. This sent the other classmates scrambling to get that treat, and chaos ensued, while Lemmy patiently sat there waiting for a better treat.
This isn’t the first time Lemmy caused trouble at school. By the second week of class Lemmy was banned from the puppy playtime for playing too rough. You see, when Lemmy was happy, he would spin with delight, and loved to slam his hind end into unsuspecting playmates. Ollie, a tiny terrier, was not expecting that tap, and Lemmy accidentally sent him rocketing across the room. After that incident, he had to skip the playtime and only attend the class.
Overall Lemmy’s time in puppy kindergarten and later in basic obedience was uneventful. Although it did take a few weeks before his teacher finally accepted he wouldn’t eat cheeseballs. However, then the final basic obedience class came and Lemmy needed to pass a test to graduate. Sit – no problem. Down- no problem. Walking on a leash – well that was a problem. But he was able to keep it together to walk Dad in a circle around the room. Fun fact: when on adventures Lemmy wouldn’t walk straight. He always insisted on walking in big circles around Mom and Dad. Perhaps that was his take away from those early lessons? They did after all practice by walking in circles around the classroom, but rarely in a straight line.
Anyways, the final test to graduate obedience school was the all important “leave it” command. To tempt the young scholars, their teacher set up an obstacle course with their favorite things, including squeaky toys, a skunk scented piece of fur, tennis balls, cheeseballs, hot dogs, and peanut butter as an added bonus for Lemmy. The instructions were simple. Lemmy and his classmates were to walk in a circle around the outer perimeter of the obstacle course, and not touch anything. Lemmy touched everything! Not only that, he pulled Dad straight through the center of the tempting objects to get to his all time favorite treat of peanut butter! Actually, I stand corrected. Lemmy didn’t touch everything. He did manage to leave the cheeseballs alone.
We miss our cheeseball brother. Lemmy crossed Rainbow Bridge 6 years ago. However we are very grateful Mom and Dad share stories of his adventures with Asa and me. Oh and in case you’re wondering, yes, Lemmy did graduate despite his epic fail! But for some reason he wasn’t invited back to attend the next level training class.
