The odd couple

Jet has doggie 'friends' and then there is 'Shaq'. I have come to describe it as nothing short of an obsession. It wasn't love at first sight (no fairy tale romance here). First time Jet met Shaq was in the flyball training hall. Now my girl doesn't do 'polite' introductions typically. She prefers the full speed charge, slam into with all 27 lbs of coiled muscle and say "hi nice to meet you!" type of hello. Most dogs don't really understand this kind of greeting (can you blame them) and take great offense. So it was with Shaq and Jet. I ran to gather her up, apologizing profusely for my girl's rudeness (I do this often if you haven't figured out). This is not going to bode well for flyball I was thinking to myself. After all, Shaq is a border collie...do you know how many border collies there are in the sport of flyball????
After a few apologetic emails to my entire flyball team later, my sympathetic flyball trainer suggested that I take Jet on a walk with Shaq so they could get to know one another under different circumstances. I mean after all they were going to be on the same team and teammates should get along.
So with great trepidation I agreed. What happened next is the stuff romance novels are made of.
As we got the dogs out of the cars to start our almost 6 km hike, I was thinking to myself, that this could take almost the entire 6 k before Jet would settle in, heck we might even have to do a second lap. Jet however had other plans. She came out of the car a woman on a mission. To find her Shaq! Now keep in mind there were 3 border collies (all black and white) on our hike that morning. But Jet only had eyes for one. She honed on in him like flys to honey and the rest is history. For the entire hike she was glued to his every move, if he dodged one way she followed; if he charged after his toy she was hot on his heels (amazing how fast her little legs can carry her). If he stopped to wait for the toy to be thrown she stood at his side gazing lovingly into his face.
Now please don't think that Shaq returns her affections. In fact I think he thinks she is more like an annoying fly buzzing around his head. Occassionally he grumps at her (with toy in his mouth still -after all he is a border collie), but she just smiles as only she can and wags her tail..as if to say "you don't really mean it - I know you really love me and are just playing hard to get."
The one morning when we arrived and Shaq wasn't there, she ran from dog to dog, border collie to border collie with a look on her face that revealed her heartbreak..Where was her boy toy? What was up with that? Oh well, guess the dobe named Beezie will have to do, but it just won't be the same. :)