Vikki was all excited the other day since we were invited for afternoon tea and cake by Rhodesian Ridgeback Baba’s humans.  Baba is a 7 month old Ridgeback boy from Shangani Ridgebacks and he also happens to be the half-brother of my bestest Ridgeback girlfriend lovely Lily (see My Friends to find Lily).

Young Rhodesian Ridgeback Baba full of spirit and puppy mischief!

My human loves to meet other Ridgeback humans to chat, laugh, learn and share stories about us Rhodesian Ridgebacks….non-stop…for hours and hours!

Baba and his family did not live too far away, so beforehand, Vikki thought a nice run around in the forest would do us both good.  However, I was already feeling a little tired that morning (after heatie time I do go through a bit of a sleepy, quiet phase).

Of course even when tired, I will always try and find the reserve energy to have a bit of fun in the forest..I can’t resist!  By the time we got back, I was very ready for a nice long nap. I think I may have overdone it!  Once on my blanket, I went straight into a proper night time ‘lie out long’ position indicating ‘that’s me done…please do not disturb!’

But I heard the bag zip go and keys jangle and as I opened my eyes, my best zebra print collar was coming into focus as it passed over my head and round my neck…Oh no!..We’re going out again?

The car engine had stopped far too soon and I woke up to Vikki’s enthusiastic call asking me to ‘Say hello to Baba!’  Huh??  Waiting near the car was young Ridgeback boy Baba with his big tongue hanging out and a sparkle in his eyes glinting ‘game on’!  His whole body began to salsa wiggle as he hovered off the ground with the swish-swash of his helicopter tail!

I slowly got out of the car still half asleep and had no time to catch my breath since Baba was jumping all over me with crazy joy!  Good grief!  I had to start playing the ‘silent statue’ game immediately as a strategy to calm things down.  He stopped jumping, confused why I was standing so still ignoring him, he began to play-bow around me and bark very loudly to try and get things going.  What a voice!  I hardly ever bark!

My statue pose was making Baba bark even louder.  I just pretended he wasn’t there!

Personally, I didn’t mind all the noise.  I just carried on pretending to be a statue.  In fact, I switched off into sleep-standing mode and blocked the barks out…heehee! Vikki was all in a twirl since she thought Baba might start getting upset!  Humpf…I was tired!  Plus I’m a young lady now and he’s a puppy-punk who still plays without rules!…huh!  I could see there would be no lie down nap opportunities for fear of Baba testing me out as a trampoline.  Sometimes Vikki just doesn’t think and I have to take matters into my own paws!  Grrrr….

My best ‘I don’t want to play grumpy faces’ that afternoon:

I noticed that when I looked up to the sky, it made Baba bark even louder…heehee…I would soon exhaust him!  I don’t know why Vikki was getting huffy?  Luckily, Baba soon wore his bark voice out and all tired from puppy excitement, he surrended to standing around with me…phew!

For the following hour I decided to be extremely interested in garden design and rockery flowers!  Baba got very bored of me looking at flowers:

Vikki grumbled that I just stood there the whole time pretending to count rosemary leaves.  Well put yourself in my paws;  I think I was a polite doggie by doing and saying absolutely nothing!  My tactic was to bore Baba and it worked.  I was even boring myself!

Eventually Baba gave up and went off for a drink. 

Later, I went for a nosey around the fantastic garden and Baba quietly tagged along to watch.  He was following me everywhere like a shadow!

Vikki had a lovely time with Baba’s humans.  They were such a nice family and they gave her lots of yummy cake.

Baba has two super talented fun-fab human pups in the family, Abigail and Max.

They were extra nice and friendly to me and gave me some yum crunchy doggie biscuits. 

Abigail & Max even introduced me to their tortoise!  I had never met a tortoise. Mr Tortoise was very odd and I managed to sniff him and then lick one of his legs…eeuuwww-yeuk..weird texture!

When it was time to go I just couldn’t get in the car fast enough and I went straight to sleep…yippee sleepsy-time at last!  Vikki was a little embarrassed and red-faced at the speed I jumped up into the car…infront of everyone! Oops!  On the journey back I still couldn’t sleep properly since I kept waking up to her muttering  ‘Poor Baba! Totally ignored!’.

I’m sorry!  I was tired!  I hope I can see Baba again though and make it up to him.  I’ll  show him a bit of true Ridgeback play next time!  I suppose Vikki was hoping we would play together and that I would teach him a few Ridgeback tricks like jumping and twisting in mid air or a chase turn.  Instead, all he got to learn from me was how to pull a professional Ridgeback grumpy face…Oops again!

Well, the art of knowing how to pull a good grumpy Ridgeback face could come in very handy.  One day he may just thank me for that!

Baba now knows how to pull a grumpy Ridgeback face – his impression of me!

Baba is a quick learner..this particular ‘unimpressed look’ took me ages to perfect….yikes!:

One day Baba will come for a play on my paradise beach where we can do things like this together:

Sorry Baba!  See you next time!