PLAY BALL!

 

Yesterday we had the quintessential winter post during our Great Outdoors Photo Share. Today it's all about the boys of summer.  Wiley went to his first baseball game last week!  His dad is an assistant baseball coach at Division II Kutztown University. You can read about the Golden Bears here, if that's your cup of tea. Now, Wiley was never socialized as a puppy, and consequently is terrified of everything. Last season I didn't even contemplate taking him because I knew he wouldn't be ready. This year I decided to give it a try. As you can see from his face, below, he was thrilled.

He decided his best coping mechanism would be to sit with his back to the backstop the entire time and pretend the game wasn't going on. 

However, he didn't cry, he didn't bark, and he didn't pull away.  These are three major victories for him!  He was also very friendly to the people who approached him and didn't do any submissive peeing, also a major accomplishment! 

Given his lack of interest in the actual game play, imagine my surprise when he told me later on that week that he wanted to start playing baseball!

 Now I'm no expert or anything, but I thought to myself, "What position is just right for a lovable but neurotic headcase who needs a lot of reassuring and has a total wild side?"

Meet Wiley aka Nuke, the newest pitcher in the Canine League.

 I put Wiley through quite a workout to see if he had any good stuff. Here he is in his wind-up.

And I was surprised to see a lot of attitude and cocky confidence from him on the mound. For example, here he is looking a runner back to first. 

And when our black lab neighbor hit a home run off him, Wiley stared her down.

He was even clutch in a play at home plate.

However, he did shake me off a few times when I tried to get him to throw his off-speed stuff. 

By the end of our session I felt Wiley had come a long way, and was impressed with how comfortable he was even in the post-game media conference.

This probably won't be the last baseball-related post I share here. If Wiley gets famous feel free to say you knew him way back when.  And if you have any pictures of your pets playing their favorite sports, share them with the blog!  As always, we'd love to have your rescue stories as well!

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