I haven’t written in a while - we were on vacation, visiting my parents… I was there for 2 weeks.

Oreo sure looks different to me now, I was shocked. She looks huge, even though she’s not, and she looks fat too because her fur so incredibly poofy. I gave her a brushing but she still needs a visit to the groomer’s to fix her up - though nothing can fit the way her fur curls and sticks out everywhere.

Her attitude is still mellow as can be - at 11 years old she just doesn’t give a care to much anymore. We had a big party at my parents’ place in the backyard, and she was just napping between the tables. Such a huge turn-around from how she used to be (overprotective, barky, nippy).

Tessa looks great, she even recognized me. She’s such a funny, funny dog - when she sees you she runs off to grab a toy, she has to have a toy in her mouth when she’s excited. And she doesn’t wag her tail - she wags her whole body. Though the tail is dangerous too, let me tell you.

It was a great vacation, and it was wonderful to see the dogs again. But honestly? I missed Zoe more than anything.

My dad says that they have a bit of a raccoon problem - this one raccoon keeps eating all their cat food. Dad knows when it’s there, because Tessa totally spazzes at the big glass door at it. He said the bugger climbs up the sundeck roof’s post onto the roof, and over the house to climb down a tree. He also said he was chasing it all over the other day, because the sundeck roof is semi-opaque and he could see it sitting up there, lol!

I asked him where the heck their cats were during all this, I mean one’s a scaredy-cat and the other’s old, and they both spend more than half their time asleep on the deck. He said, oh, they were laying in the corner, watching. Both cats know plenty better than to tangle with a raccoon - I remember one time when he was a lot younger (he was a punk), Tuffy saw a young raccoon shuffling along the fenceline on the other side of the yard and thought it was another cat invading his territory. He went tearing across the yard to beat up the cat, and when he got about 10 feet away it hissed and he realized what it really was - he made a sharp turn and run under the camper to hide and watch. That’s a blessing.

But dad’s still pretty annoyed that it keeps eating all the cat food!

I am so excited and so proud of my Oreo! She’s been going to the dog park for almost a year now, and Tessa the pup has been here for about 7 months. Both dogs really look forward to walks in the park, they get so excited and really perk up.

Oreo is 9 years old and really been slowing down in the past few years. Well yesterday and today at the park she was doing her thing, trotting around with her tail up when a little white dog came racing up and taunted her a bit, then ran off… and Oreo chased after it. We haven’t seen her run that fast in years! She did it again today, with the same dog. (Dad says maybe she thinks it’s a sheep? lol)

And then, to stun us even more, Tess and Oreo started playing! And not just the normal growl-and-chase that they do back and forth in the house… they were play-wrestling! My dog is a border collie and has NEVER played like that with any dog before, ever. But she was jumping up, shouldering, they were “biting” at each other’s necks, running around… they ran into dad twice, nearly knocked him on the ground. (That was Tessa’s fault - she’s like a truck when she hits).

I just had a huge grin on my face. Oreo acts like a pup again! (She’s also lost nearly 10 lbs since Tess showed up!)

There is no time in my life that I feel more complete than when I have all my furry ones around me. I went to bed and laid down, Oreo on the floor beside my bed, Tessa on the floor a few feet past her. I sat in bed propped up with pillows to read a little while before sleep, and Joey jumped up to lay down beside my leg. He stetched out, sighed a happy sigh, and fell asleep purring. After I snuggled down into my blankets (what little I had left), carefully bending my leg into a comfortable position, Joey stetched again and curled up between my stomach and bent leg. So we laid there in the dark, all four of us. And I thought, how perfect is this. How blessed am I.

:: ::

Oreo hurt herself today. It was in the morning, dad was up with the dogs and I was still in bed. I heard a “YIPE!” and the next thing I knew I had a dog on my bed close to my legs, and she was shaking like a leaf. I’ve never seen her so upset. Dad came in close after, hugging her to him and comforting her, asking her what happened. Of course she didn’t answer, but she did bury her head against him and shook for the next five minutes.

The best we can figure is that she pulled a muscle. They weren’t even doing anything interesting, just dad and the “girls” were coming up the stairs. As Oreo went to go up the first step, she yiped and ran, tail-tucked.

After her intial flight up the stairs and onto my bed in fear, she’s now avoiding the stairs and jumping onto the bed or couches. She may still be sore, but she’s the kind of dog who, if something hurts her, will avoid it for a very long time. She limped for the first little while, but now she seems fine… but very subdued. I think she scared herself pretty bad. For a few hours afterwards she was barely walking around the house, tail hanging, eyes sad. Dad would call her and she’d stand rooted to the spot. After a while, though, she started wagging her tail and grabbing a toy. She’s back to trotting around the table in her favorite game.

So dad’s been coddling her all day. He normally treats her like a little princess, but today it’s been that times three. *laughs* Every time he walks by he gets down on his knees and talks to her softly and gives her a hug. He’s been carrying her up and down the stairs. And she of course is getting all she can out of it, sidling up to him with sad brown eyes and giving him little tiny kisses on his chin.

We figure it might take a day or two for her to get over it - dad and I both suffer pinched nerves and pulled muscles frequently, so we definitely know how it is. If she’s not feeling better I’ll take her to the vet, but we seriously doubt that’ll be needed.

Tessa was more of a terror today than normal - nothing bad, just harassing Oreo. She’d lick at Oreo’s mouth, lick lick lick lick, then snuffle at her ear, then bark, then run around her, then bump her. I asked Tess, “Are you trying to cheer her up, or are you just taking this opportunity to annoy the heck out of her?” I figure it’s a little of both - she knew right off that something wasn’t right, so she was acting up a little towards Oreo, and then to top it off Oreo isn’t standing up for herself as much as normal (as in, she isn’t grumbling every time Tessa starts up), so Tessa’s been getting away with more than usual. I’m sure that’ll change soon, though.

Life is always interesting here.

I’ve always wanted a second dog in the house, but Oreo made that idea iffy. You see, she’s always been dog-aggressive. When she was a puppy I’d take her out often with my friends and their dogs, so it’s not like she was isolated. But I guess that wasn’t enough, and the friends and I grew apart after a few years so the doggy playtimes stopped. So until this year Oreo was pretty hard to take out. She pulled at the leash, and if we saw another dog she’d be barking and and pulling… that was dealable, though. It was when another dog approached her that there were major troubles: she’d growl, first. Then raise a lip. And then she’d air-snap and rush them, all the while sounding like she meant it. She never touched another dog, never hurt anyone… but it still wasn’t very fun. Her whole attitude was “Leave me alone.” This was on-leash… off-leash she was better, but she tended to stay far away from other dogs, and just ran off if one approached her. She’d get aggressive if cornered.

She got better as she got older - her attitude towards humans has increased tremendously. She’s much more laid-back and less anxious. But the dog problem still existed.

A year ago I learned there was a dog park near the house. A huge field, fully fenced. I decided to take Oreo. Now I know a lot of people wouldn’t have done that with a dog like her, but… I can’t explain it, but I know her. I wasn’t worried about a fight… I was more worried about her being terrified. And she was, at first. She sat by my legs a lot, hiding behind me when another dog approached. We spent a lot of time off on our own, letting Oreo approach other dogs on her own terms. At first there was a lot of growling on her part. I was ready to take her out of there if there was a problem, but a surprizing thing happened: they listened to her. All the other dogs, they backed off and politely left her alone. I was stunned - and so was Oreo.

Over several months she became a totally different dog. She now goes into the dog park with her tail confidently raised over her back. She approaches other dogs to greet and sniff. We do laps around the field with other dogs and their owners, the dogs leisurely trotting back and forth, checking out all the smells and sights of the park together. Oreo’s right among them. She still grumbles when playing dogs run into her, sometimes barking to tell them to watch where they’re going. She still doesn’t like pushy, impolite dogs. But really, I can’t blame her for that.

This all happened before the new puppy was added to our household. But despite all her progress, I really worried how she would react to another dog not only in her life, but in her house. Not only a dog, but a young puppy. In our experience, puppies seem to be a lot denser when it comes to heeding Oreo’s warning signals. They’re more exciteable, more pushy, more annoying (to Oreo).

Tessa turned out to be the most lovable, sweetest pup you’ve ever met. She’s now 9 months old, I think, and sweet as can be. She doesn’t have a mean bone in her body. She took to Oreo like a little sister would - Tessa absolutely adores her. When I take Oreo to the vet, or to the groomers, or even just out to the store with me, I am told Tessa sulks around the house, looking for her.

But the change that drives me to tears when I watch, is Oreo. Oreo, my previously dog-hating dog, has blossomed. She still sounds like a grumpy old hag, snarling and growling at the annoying puppy. She puts up a good act, for sure. But then when Tessa walks away, Oreo runs up, pushing her toy at her, then dancing back again. Back and forth they go - growl, run away… run after, prance, chase. They do this daily, back and forth across the living room, around the dining room table. Tessa caught on early how Oreo works. Tessa knows. She barks at Oreo, dropping into play-bow pose. She jumps closer, ignoring the growls and snarls. Tease, tease. Then Oreo explodes in a barking snarl, chasing Tessa down and backing her into a corner. Oreo growls menacingly. Tessa drops to the floor submissively. Then Oreo dashes back for the toy she dropped, and Tessa launches to her feet and runs after. And the whole thing starts again.

You’d think, maybe, that Oreo meant it. And I guess sometimes she does - sometimes she’s had enough. I saw her once back Tessa into a corner, snapping at her. And then I saw Oreo very carefully, very deliberately, place her mouth over Tessa’s muzzle. Then she backed off. It was as if she said, “Okay, young one. That’s enough.” And that was all.

But most of the time, it’s play. I stand there amazed at the change in my dog. She sounds vicious. She sounds like if she catches Tess, bad things are going to happen. But then she prances on the spot, throwing her head back to squeak the toy she’s holding. She bows down in play before running off again. It’s like, at 9 years old, she never knew how to play, and this is her version of it.

The two dogs in the backyard do everything together. Oreo always had a “route” established, every time she was let outside she’d run her circuit to check the perimeter. Now there’s two of them, side by side, running the loop. Then one of them grabs a stick, or a ball, and they chase each other around.

The change in Oreo is physically visible. I took some pictures of her early in the summer: my big tube-dog. She looked like a big fat sausage. One big roll. She weighed probably around 48lbs, which is the genraly weight she’d been at for years, despite strict feeding rations and daily exercise outside. Now, though… now her tummy tucks up and narrows in. Now her weight is down to 41lbs - that’s the lowest she’s ever been in her adult life.

She has more spunk to her now. She’s always eager to grab a toy and play - even when tired she can’t stand us playing with the pup and not her. She insists on playing, too. Her favorite game in the house is chase around the dining room table. She grabs a ball, or whatever toy, and taunts you to chase her. This is a people game, she does not play it with Tessa. And when you chase her, she runs around the table, around and around. She stops if you get too far behind. She goes faster if you catch up. And if you do something foolish like turn around, she doubles under the table to keep going - she always runs in the same direction. She’d been slowing down every year - we’d chase her excitedly, trying to get her going more, but she’d just slow down and stop. Yesterday my dad was chasing her around the table, and she had such a light step. She was out way ahead, dancing along - and it was dad who started losing breath. She still wanted to play. All the while Tessa runs alongside, of course, trying to figure out what Oreo’s doing and wanting to join in. Oreo barks at her with her mouth full of toy. Tessa barks back and grabs another toy - then stands in puzzlement as Oreo just keeps running around the table.

Of all the scenarios I imagined when the puppy was added to the household, this was never one of them. At best we hoped Oreo would tolerate another dog. We never pictured her playing, never pictured them sleeping happily side-by-side. (But never cuddled - that’s Oreo’s personal space). And when I watch them run around the house with their toys, teasing each other and dancing back and forth, my eyes tear up. My baby has grown so much.

I feel like a mother. Doing my daily business around the house usually includes the following: Remove object from Tessa’s mouth. Chase Oreo around for fun (it’s her favorite game). Tell Tessa to stop bugging Oreo. Wait for dogs to move out of my way in the hall before walking to kitchen. Hear Oreo bark and snap at Tessa, who ran into her. Remove Joey from counter-top. Tell Tess to stop chasing the darned cat. Open fridge. Remove Joey from fridge so I can close the door. Prepare food. Remove Joey from counter-top. Wipe Tessa’s slobber off floor. Turn and nearly trip over the dogs who are staring at me, hoping something drops on the floor. Walk back down hall. Trip over Joey, who is winding around my legs hoping for food. Spend meal fending off Joey, under the watchful eyes of at least one of the dogs.

It’s an all-encompassing job.

Feeding time here at the house often falls to me, when I’m home (Dad takes the honor of feeding the dogs when I’m not, and I feed the cats when I get home). I actually enjoy it, for some reason; I like the feeling of preparing it all, of caring for all the babies. It makes me feel very motherly.

I prefer to do the feeding assembly-line style. It’s not as easy as you might think, because every single pet in this house (and there’s five of them) gets different food. Yes, you heard me right - all of them get different food. This wasn’t really by design either.

First there’s the dogs. They’re on different food because of their ages: Oreo’s on senior dog food, and Tess is on puppy food (but not for much longer, she’ll be switched to adult food but they’ll still be different). They both get fed twice a day, but Oreo gets canned food and Tess doesn’t.

The cats, three of them, are similar. Tuffy gets senior canned food, because of his very advanced age (he’s 15 now). Angel actually refused to eat canned food before I got here and bought him his own food - I’m not sure if he just didn’t like what Tuffy ate (for the past 5 years) or if he wanted his own dish to eat from or what. Angel still only nibbles at the canned food, so I get him the small cans of food - and I get him special formuly for hairballs, since he’s constantly hacking them up (yuck). Those two cats do share dry food, though, but that’s always available for them.

My cat eats normal adult canned cat food, but man is he a pig. My parents were totally astonished when they saw how much I was feeding the little man - he’s a smaller cat than either Angel or Tuffy, and yet he eats at least three times as much. As a comparison, he gets the same amount of canned food a day that Oreo does (and she’s 42lbs). And he’s constantly yowling for more.

So I dish out all the food in the very different, unique bowls: Tessa gets several cups of dry food in whatever large dish is handy, Oreo gets a carefully measured portion of dry and canned in her purty purple bowl, Tuffy gets his canned food in the plastic fish-shaped bowl that mom bought for him, Angel gets a small dallop of canned food in a normal bowl, and Joey gets his canned food in the cute fish-decorated ceramic bowl I got for him. Tessa gets hers first because, one, she drools horrifically while she’s waiting for her dinner, and two, she tends to shove the other pets out of her way to get whatever food is available. She’s also fed outside because, well, she dives head-first into her bowl and knocks kibble everywhere. She does vacuum it up afterwards, but still, outside she’s out of the way for a few minutes. Then Oreo gets her bowl, which she daintily eats about ten times slower than Tessa. (Actually, Tessa’s usually barking at the door wanting in so she can eat everyone else’s food by the time I put Oreo’s dish on the floor, no lie.) I put down Angel’s dish where the dogs can’t get it and try to shoo Joey away from it, then take Joey’s dish down the hall to my room to where his dishes are all set up. He runs in between my legs the entire time I’m walking, I’ve tripped over him so many times. And the last time I did, he swatted me, the little bugger. Last is usually Tuffy is sometimes fed in the middle, sometimes first, sometimes last. He gets his food outside on the patio table.

And all the pets know when it’s dinner time. Angel’s quickly learning about this new fed-at-one-time deal now that he’s eating canned food. Joey is always yowling for food and giving me dirty looks when I don’t immediately fill up his bowl - and at dinner time when I call him he comes running with many chirps and chidings. The dogs, they are the best time-keepers of all, they will come and stare at you at exactly 6pm. And stare. And stare. The past weekend when we turned our clocks back for daylight savings time, they were both so upset! It always takes them a while to adjust to that.

But even though it’s messy and loud and slobbery, I love it.

:: ::

Another catfight tonight, although it was less of a “fight” and more of Angel freaking out and spitting and growling. So I poked Cory awake and went to investigate. Sure enough Joey’s standing on the table above Angel, looking down, and Angel’s flattened to the floor with his ears pinned back, growling and hissing menacingly. Well, it would be menacingly if his body language didn’t very clearly say, “Don’t touch me! Oh my god, don’t touch me!” Joey has stopped looking even remotely mean when he does this, he’s more like a kitty stalking his favorite toy. His tail swishes, he crouches, he sneaks up, then when caught he looks around like he wasn’t doing anything at all. He gets very easily distracted and runs off if he finds something more fun to do. Too bad Angel can’t be so lighthearted.

So Cory goes over to Angel and pets him and speaks softly to calm him down. You don’t really want to pick up a totally freaking out cat like that, so he moved him by sliding him across the linolium. LOL! It was so funny, Cory just pushes him carefully across the floor, all the while Angel remains in the same position, growling. After a few minutes Cory picked him up to take him away. All I could hear was, “Rrrrrrrrrrr!” as the big grey fuzzball was lifted. But it’s very unlikely Angel would strike out at Cory, even as upset as that. Hasn’t yet. Just makes a lot of noise.

Joey, on the other hand… you just don’t pick up when he’s agitated. Or try… try is as far as I got, last time!

THE main difference between my parents’ dogs and Zeeke - and the reason I have SO much problem with Zeeke - is all in the fact that these two dogs CARE what I think. I mean, Zeeke probably does care - but he doesn’t back down, he doesn’t get cowed, and he absolutely is NOT submissive. Oreo and Tessa are extremely easy to teach (usually, unless it comes to food). Tessa is going to be broken of this cat-chasing habit (which we’ve allowed because Joey willingly participates, most of the time, and chases HER) very very quickly because when I yell “TESS-A!!!” she stops DEAD and when I stomp towards her with a frown on my face, she lowers her head. That’s all I ever need to do. Oreo requires only a stern voice, unless she’s really off her nut (such as when she’s barking at a knock at the door). And I rarely ever even do that much, and when I do I back off immediately. But there’s that change in the dog, that reaction that says, “Oh, I’m sorry!” Of course they forget all about it three seconds later, but that’s fixed with repetition.

Zeeke, on the other hand… NONE of those things work. At all. If I reprimanded him the same way I do these dogs he challenges me. He does NOT cower, he walks towards me, tries to intimidate me. And I’m sad to say, I don’t know how to react to that. I am not a person of force. The most I’ve ever done to Oreo was probably a light slap on the rump when she’s not listening to my voice, and that’s just to get her attention. Zeeke I had to hold down to try to get him to calm down and not spaz out, but it didn’t work too well.

I just find it so much easier - so relieving - to be able to work with submissive dogs again. And it’s not like I want them cowering around me - I absolutely don’t. A few random people have suggested in the past that, since I have smacked Oreo once or twice that she’s afraid of me. *snort* They’ve never seen her around me. She adores me, she trusts me, and the LAST thing she is is afraid of me. I give the dogs a lot of leeway in daily life, I let Tess play with the cat to a point, I let Oreo reprimand the “pup” in her own way, I let them bark and roughhouse and throw their toys around. Until it steps over a line and then I remind them to back off, and they listen.

I am just not meant to be a German Shepherd owner. I do not have the personality for it at all. Which makes me really glad Den does!

The IQube toy is going over very well. I bought it today when I took Oreo down to Petsmart, and bought it, a plushie bone and a chewie bone (for Tess), just because. Well at first there wasn’t much interest in the IQube. But I tossed the balls around for a bit, which got Tessa really happy and Oreo interested. Next step was shoving treats in with the balls. Both dogs loved that, but the balls were just obstacles, lol. Finally after a while Oreo wanted a ball and so she started shoving her nose in and pawing at it and worked one loose bit by bit. We had a big celebration and I chased her around (it’s her favorite game), then a little later put the balls back. She can pop them out pretty quickly now, when she wants to. It was pretty cute. She really seemed to enjoy it.

Tessa, on the other hand, just wants to play fetch with the balls. LOL We left one out for her while Oreo played with the rest. They both had fun. (Though I make sure to take the toy away when I’m done, because Tess would tear anything apart!)

I know I should have more faith, but I honestly never expected this kind of communication between Oreo and Tessa. I’m constantly being surprized at how they get along, I just can’t believe this is the same dog I raised.

Oreo’s at the point where she will grumble when Tessa gets too close to “her” space, and will even chase her off if Tessa pushes too close. And yet in the opposite situation, Oreo is not in the least bit pushy. Oreo never intrudes on Tessa, not even to steal back a treat that Tess took from her. I guess Oreo’s attitude is more or less a “leave me alone and I’ll leave you alone” kind of motto.

Oreo grumbled at Joey the other night; Oreo was asleep on the bed by my feet, and Joey started exploring the lower half of the bed, sniffing at her. Oreo woke up and snapped at him, causing him to jump ship. I was a little surprized that she’d do that to one of the cats, but then again she doesn’t like anything near her bum, and she was asleep so she possibly didn’t know it was a cat.

But even still with her little quirks, she’s all show. I’ve seen Tessa actually step on Oreo or trip over her while Oreo’s laying down, and Oreo vocalizes - but that’s it. I guess like a “Watch where you’re going!”

The time Oreo gets most pushy is when there is a lot of excitement - when Tessa is running around into things, and just super-hyper. That just happened: dad’s friend showed up at the door and came inside. Both dogs get so excited to see someone new, Tessa was doing her whole-body wiggle, tail smacking around, and Tessa has a habit of pushing Oreo out of the way. Well Oreo got fed up and I heard a lot of growl/barking from her and she chased Tessa and pinned her down. I actually saw Oreo very gently put her mouth over Tessa’s muzzle as she growled. It seemed so much like Oreo was the older one saying to the young child, “Alright, calm down! That’s enough!”

It’s just that Oreo handles the situation so well, at least now after a lot of time. She’s so gentle and does what’s necessary to get her point across. I guess a lot of dogs wouldn’t be grumpy at all, but Oreo’s a matronly dog, she doesn’t like pushy dogs at all and prefers nice sedate situations. And I totally understand it. I’m just so impressed with her ability to communicate without going overboard.

I really hope this continues past Tessa’s adolescence. I know dogs hitting adulthood can suddenly challenge the upper pack members, so I hope it goes smoothly.