Like Sapphie and Zeph (the canine stars of Corgi Capers), my two corgis have opposite personalities. Today’s adventure is a great example of that. It was Yoda’s worst nightmare (cue scary music): PEOPLE were coming to the house!

We had contractors coming to do some upgrades in our kitchen. The kitchen is the corgi’s domain. It’s filled with their toys, beds, and crates, and it’s their favorite spot to spend time. But because of the dust and the noise (and the dangerous tools!), I moved the corgis into their crates, which I kept in the living room until the contractors left. To put the corgis at ease, I gave them each one of their favorite chewy bones to eat while they waited for the contractors to leave.

Leia, like Sapphie, was fearless. She jumped into her crate and went right to work on the bone, ignoring the contractors that bounded up and down the steps all morning.

Yoda, on the other hand, behaved more like Zeph. First he wasn’t sure why his crate was in the living room.
When he finally found it, he ran into his crate not because of the promise of food, but because of the promise of safety. He ignored his rawhide chew, too worried to eat it. He turned himself around in his crate so that his nose was as close as it could be to the side of the room where I was sitting, and if I would simply shift in my seat, Yoda would jump up in alarm.

Before long, the contractors started using crowbars and hammers to deconstruct the counter. Very noisy. Whenever the hammer pounded, Yoda jumped up in his crate, sniffing the air and looking at me for signs of concern. Whenever the hammer pounded, Leia… continued chewing on her bone without worry.

Finally, after about two hours of this, Yoda realized that the contractors were not going to harm anything (except our wallets!), he started eating his chewy treat. By this time, Leia had gobbled down hers, and she spent the rest of the time with her nose faced towards Yoda’s crate, whining every now and again because Yoda had a treat and she didn’t. Like Sapphie, Leia is a feisty one–if she hadn’t been in her crate, she would have followed her usual protocol: charging Yoda until he cowers away in terror, stealing his treat, and eating it while growling menacingly to keep him cowering in the corner. I guess today just worked out well for Yoda after all.