Australian Shepherd Turns Her Herding Eye Into a Perfect Sunset Distraction

Lauren was cooking dinner when Murphy, her Australian Shepherd, locked on with the herding eye. That stare held the whole time she was at the stove, and Lauren took it the sweet way: Murphy wanted company outside with Michael for the sunset. Out on the deck, Murphy looked up at her, then over at the lounge chairs she loves having her people in. Lauren went along with it.

"NOPE 😩," Lauren wrote on @murphythelady, once it clicked that the stare had never been about the sunset. With her people settled outside, Murphy slipped back into the kitchen and went straight for the counter beside the stove.

Caught, she drops back to all fours and stares into the camera with big, soft eyes — the picture of a dog who can see how this looks bad — then tucks under the dinner table, gazing up hopefully at the edge of someone's bowl.

Viewers had opinions. "The aussacity," one wrote. Another took Murphy's side completely: "How dare you frame Murphy like that." And one viewer who has clearly been through this admitted, "I get baited everyday."

"Aussies are master manipulators," Lauren wrote, but the night still ended well for everyone with two legs: "luckily our chicken was marked safe this time." Her last word on the matter was a Puss in Boots sticker dropped right next to Murphy's face under the table, big pleading eyes to match big pleading eyes.