I like it when people visit, says Mikey. Most of the time, anyhow. Sometimes, when they have visitors, they tie me up. On the porch, away from the guests, or worse yet, in the backyard, away from everything. "Does he bite?" the visitors will ask. Only if you're an iguana, a cat, or an overly aggressive dog, I'm thinking. So, I try to control myself, act all friendly, and usually at some point they relent, untie me and things are sort of back to normal.
On the other hand, when they get long-term visitors, overnight, or sometimes for a few days, like these two ..
...then it's no longer the same-old-same-old. It's a real improvement: more attention and more affection (if they happen to be dog-lovers, and these two definitely are. When it's really good (and right now, it's really good) there's more food and more walks, and just all-around more things to do. For instance, on this walk, I pulled them into the bamboo forest, tried to get them down into the creek, showed them where I'd taken care of a few iguanas and a cat or two, yet for what ever reason, they kept me away from the two dogs on either end of the everyday walking path. The german shepherd on one end of the road, and that big black dog (bigger than me, although last time we got into it, I showed him who's tougher) at the other end of the road.
"Oh Mikey, you're so cute," she says to me. "I thought you'd be bigger than you are," she says. "You should see my dog at home, a shepherd and lab mix. Twice your size," she tells me.
Humph, I'm thinking, a little bit embarrassed, but I'm not going to mess with her, or her dog, as long as she keeps scratching me behind the ears, calling me sweet names, and tossing out an extra treat now and again. Like I said, on the whole, I like visitors, and I want to keep them coming back.