This is the face that I see almost every night.  His lips get pushed up, his teeth are all showing, his eyes are half glossed over from sleep, ears all over the place… yeah he’s just that special!
Does that face just not scream “tRouble maker!” I think it certainly does.
Although very well behaved…generally, and really well trained…for the most part, here are some recent “UGH RIO!!!” moments…
Yesterday I was feeding the cats and generally we feed the cats on their wall perches or the window perch.  I was in a rush so I just fed the cats on the ground (which has never been a problem).  I turned my back for a split second, not realizing Rio was anywhere near by and look back to see poor Jefferson (lovingly called fat-cat) smacking Rio in the head because Rio was stealing his dinner.
I was sewing some kitty kick-bags the other day and all was going well until Rio decided to forget to lift his feet over the cord.  Now, I could understand if the cord was suspended…but dude, the cord was on the ground!!  Somehow or another he got tangled, panicked, ripped the plug out of the wall and almost got the machine on the ground.  I set up the cord so it would be completely on the ground to purposefully reduce problems…but no, Rio somehow manages to ruin it!
We have an end table that has “wings” that you can fold down or keep up using a bottom support thing.  Well … smart dog decided it would be a REALLY good idea to ram his block head into the support while trying to get a ball…. which caused the top of the table flap to fall down and all the stuff on top to come crashing to the floor.  It scared the crap out of Rio (as it should)… luckily the computer’s center was over the other part of the table so it didn’t fall, but boy was it close.
Last night it was a little chilly and jerk-face Rio (who sleeps under my covers) got up in the middle of the night and made some circles under the covers which effectively took the covers from me and wrapped them all around him in this hermetically sealed cocoon-like den.
Today I was working some tricks outside and I cued Shayne to hop-up (a back stall) and sure enough, Rio left his perch (where he stays while I work Shayne) and he jump up on my back as well.  If I knew he was jumping up it would have been fine… but I didn’t see him coming and I nearly toppled over since he upset the balance.
On that note, we were practicing some “scoot” (backing through my legs) behaviors the other day and Rio really whips his hip around and he has the tendency to hit my leg with his butt/hip… now his butt is WAY boney and sort of painful.  I saw some friends the other day and was wearing capris and they commented on the giant bruise on my shin “omg, what happened to your leg???” …. “uhh… well… dog training accident?”  which sounds significantly less cool than: hiking accident, hit by flying debris, wild puma attack, rock climbing incident, etc.
Oh Rio… I heart you but sometimes you are a pain in my….shin?