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Many of the things we find spectacular about Kylie may in reality not be entirely unique. We’re willing to admit that its possible that lots of dogs demonstrate some of the same peculiarities and predilections of our little maniac.

But there was something Kylie did that we do feel is pretty unusual.. she made up games!

Once on a particularly boring stretch of a road trip on a two lane road in New Mexico, Kylie perched herself between the two front seats watching the road ahead intently. Then when she would see a semi on the horizon coming towards us, she would stand and take a stance like she was clearly getting ready for something to happen. As the distance between us and the truck got smaller she got all riled up, then when they passed she pounced! Barking and snarling, and jumping towards the driver’s side of the hatchback and running toward the back of the car.. Once the big truck was in our rear view mirror, a few more barks from Kylie fully facing backwards in the back of the car, then she would wag her tail wildly, hop back up to sit between the front seats again and wait for the next one!

This went on for quite some time, we tried to join in, but Kylie made it clear we had no idea what we were doing. There were obviously rules, you couldn’t just bark at any old car; we tried that (yes, we were both barking at the top of our lungs) and she looked at us like we were nuts! It had to be just the big trucks! Although on subsequent road trips she opened up the playing field, depending on how bored she was, and she would go after anything bigger than a bike.  We were always so impressed with her ability to entertain herself! Of course at some point during a long drive across town when she started up and there was a truck every few seconds instead of every few miles, we had to convince her that “the highway game” was not meant to be played in the city!

Another game Kylie invented was “the shadow game,” but this one she needed our help for. Kylie loved playing in her backyard day and night, but what’s a dog to do when it gets dark outside? Kylie had an answer for that… she would make a ruckus and act like Tommy fell down the well or something until we would go out in the backyard with her, sometimes at 11:00 or even midnight. Then when at least one of us would get outside she would have these nice tall shadows on the fence to chase back and forth. Of course at that hour we had to keep the barking to a minimum, but Kylie was actually ok with that, she just wanted the thrill of the chase!

She was so awesome! Way more fun than the olympics! We miss her so much!