puppy love

bixby's crush lives in this big yellow house.  her name is aspen, and she's a beautiful, blue-eyed australian shepherd.  every time we get close, bix perks up and starts to tug on his leash.  if she's not outside, his eyes search for her: in the yard, on the porch, behind one of the windows.  and if she is there, she gracefully lopes over and says hi and pees underneath one of the bushes that line their yard.  he tries to flirt with her but mostly just winds up jumping around and doing this funny low bark like a big old doof.  oh, the awkward teenage years.  they remind me of john green's mesmerizing female characters and the fumbling boys that fall hopelessly in love with them: i was gawky and she was gorgeous and i was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating.  so i walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, i was drizzle and she was a hurricane.  poor, poor bixby.

BUT i took this picture yesterday, the one time we've passed when she's been home and noticed us walking by but had no owners to let her out.  if you look very, very closely, you can see her in the front doorway, saying "hi! hi! hi!" and it makes me think that maybe she has a little bit of a crush on him too ;)