And The Lion Shall Lay Down With Baron the Lamb

The Lion King is Simba. He rules the Oak Hill with les majesty. Calmly surveying his domain, he has little patience with his underlings like Baron Von Goofus. Simba has the privelege of going anywhere in the house he chooses. Usually, he follows the sun. Sleeping on the bed in the East Room in the morning. Sleeping on the living room couch, in the afternoon sunlight. Sleeping on his mistresses bed at night. Actually, being 13 he sleeps a lot. I learned a lot from him about retirement.

He deigns though to bestir himself though early in the morning. His servants need to get up and feed him. He is very particular on that subject. If somehow his mistress fails to rise early enough, say 5 a.m., he begins whining, pawing and when all else fails a few nips on her ears or nose. He eats well. Only the choicest cuts of salmon for him. Dry catfood? Never!

Simba watches carefully though, when the large clumsy dog is allowed into the house. The dog romps around aimlessly. Knocking things over. Demanding attention from everyone. The dog is definitely quite uncultered.Definitely more trouble than he is worth. Lacks dignity,that’s for sure.
Baron is a very very large GSD. He is quite smart, his master says. His mistress is more skeptical. Baron is restricted to the mud room, the kitchen, and the basement. The reason is because he sheds a lot. General rowdiness may have something to do with it as well. Baron likes to chase small creatures a lot. He is by nature a "herder."

His specialty is squirrels. Unfortunately, cats seem to be close second. This chase impulse seems to overpower all the rules about where he is allowed in the house. When Simba walks across the living room a chase is sure to follow.The name of the game changes though when Simba is on a chair, or the couch, or a counter. Baron approaches the cat quietly, knowing its against the rules to harass. Once he gets withing striking range, Simba pummels him with lefts and rights from his declawed paws. Stunned, the big dog usually drops to the floor and looks up. It's as if to say, "ok, ok, your the boss. I just wanted to lay down here."

It's evening now and Simba is sleeping peacefully. Baron is giving me his "I'm cool with all this," look. He knows it's time to go out to his kennel in the garage. Perhaps, he would like to spend the night inside sleeping by his buddy Simba. Or on the bed in the master bedroom? I think not!