I often talk about how sweet Chester is but he is also referred to at our house as the bad boyfriend. One of our neighbors in Rowe has a rescued heeler, her name is Jolee.  She came to them a couple of months before Chester came to us.  We really didn’t know she lived there, she’s insecure and likes to stay around her people.  When Becky (her person) saw us playing with Chester she would bring her over in the field in between our houses so they would play together.  Jolee would only play with Chester if Becky was with her.  Now Jolee is a very high energy dog so we thought if they would play together it might tire her out a little.  Becky would bring Chester with them on hikes, he’s always open to an invitation to tag along on an adventure.  After a few months Jolee would stand next to their house on the field side by herself and wait for Chester to notice her in hopes that he would come over and play.  A little longer after that she would bark so he would notice her.  If Chester went over they would run around the field until Chester got tired and came home.  Jolee never has enough, she would play for hours straight and never breathe hard.

A few months ago we noticed that Chester had a few more toys in the back yard than normal and began to wonder where they came from so we started to watch him.  Apparently there are many times when Chester just does not want to play with Jolee, she runs him ragged.  Now Jolee really wants Chester to play with her so she started baiting him with her toys.  He’d see her with some great toy and would go running over to see what it was.  He would then take it away from her and bring it over to his little side hill toy spot in the back yard.  He knows Jolee won’t come that far into our yard to get her toys so his collection grows.  I will sometimes sneak her toys into the car and toss them out in her yard on the way by or we put them on some high spot and Becky will come get them.  Our daughters dubbed him the bad boyfriend after watching Jolee make numerous attempts to get him to play one weekend only to have toy after toy end up in our yard.

We spent the long Thanksgiving weekend in Rowe and Jolee was away on holiday somewhere.  Chester spent the weekend a little forlorn wondering where his girlfriend was.  Needless to say he was a much larger pest because he wanted US to play with him in her absence.  We end up throwing tennis balls for hours, he loves it and sometimes you do what you have to do.

Last weekend this is what we saw.

She’s becoming bolder.  She had just come over the bank with a stick when I took this photograph.  Just waiting for Chester to come running over to take it away from her.  Later Bill went out to throw a tennis ball for Chester but this time he brought an extra one and I believe Jolee brought it home.