Our two year old, tri-color Collie named Douglas (a.k.a. "Dougie") elicits two basic emotions: happiness or fear. That's all the big guy seems to exhibit as he goes through life...smiling because he's around his family or fearful because something's bothering him.

Here's Dougie:

Now, what in his environment might be bothering him, you may ask?

Here's a very brief list of things we've noticed that set off Dougie's fear factor:

I guess I could go on and on with the list of things that Dougie would rather not have in his presence, but that could take a while. Suffice it to say that the dog exhibits typical hearding dog weirdness when it comes to life in the real world.

So, it really wasn't too surprising when the big guy was a bit upset when we took him to the new Presto Dog den which we've affectionately dubbed "The Phunny Pharm"...

When we arrived at the Pharm, Dougie jumped out of the van and was extremely happy to be un-confined. That is, until he realized that he'd now have to spend a few hours in a new house, with all new smells and doorways that he hadn't ever seen previously. (For some reason, getting through doorways is like entering a porthole to another dimension for the dog. I guess he thinks he's gonna be transported back or forward in time to a situation that he won't be familiar with. Remember that old Star Trek episode where Kirk, McCoy & Spock were whisked back to the Roaring 20's?)

Anyway, it took the gut a couple of hours until he settled down enough to a least make a half-hearted effort to chew on a toy bone we had purchased especially for his enjoyment.

We'll be going back to the Phunny Pharm this weekend, as we will for the next several weekend, to spruce up the place for our eventual full-time residence at same. So Doug is going to have to become used to the fact that we're going to change the world as he knows it. Hopefully he'll soon realize that his toys, crate and human folks will be around to make his transition as smooth as possible.