the horse and his dog

bozeman has several stuffed animals: a duck, a goose, a pheasant, a horse and he used to have a cow that squeaked. a few weeks ago, we decided that the cow was just too stinky and dirty and beyond help and that he needed to be replaced. this was a tough decision for me, because bozeman had picked out the cow all on his own during LH's last deployment, but it had to be done. LH and i went to the pet store and perused the selection of dog toys, trying to find just the right toy to replace the stinky cow. finally, we both agreed on a horse with a squeaker in it. it seemed a little weird to let the dog chew on a horse, but we didn't get too worked up about it.

it turns out that bozeman has bonded very well with the horse. they do just about everything together. at first, i thought it was just cute and a coincidence that he was treating the horse like his little friend. that was, until LH and i caught him giving his toy duck a drink from his water bowl last night. now we have to rethink these pictures and wonder how smart bozeman really is.

this was at our condo before we moved. i snuck up behind bozeman and caught him sharing the view with his horse. i think they were secretly plotting how to catch some of the feral cats together.


uh oh, i've been found out! notice the innocent look on bozeman's face. the horse doesn't look so innocent, though. he looks rather mischievous, like he has been teaching bozeman the ways of catching wild cats. naughty horse.


here they are together last night in our new house. both were exhausted from a long day of exploring and playing. i covered them with the blanket, but bozeman did the posing. i think he knew i wanted to take his picture and put his arm around the horse for me.