There’s a battle of wills raging in the Little Bear household. Okay, it’s a quiet storm (we don’t want to traumatize the kids i.e. LB and The Cat), but it’s been rumbling on for about a year now.
Here’s the crux. I want another dog as a companion for LB – Other Half (OH) doesn’t.
He might correct me here as technically what he’s said is that he’d like another dog once we move to the ‘forever house’. Now as anyone with similar dreams of leaving the burbs and the 9-5 grind for a life in the country will know, it takes a little time to achieve. Failing a lottery win or six figure deal on my as yet unwritten book, realistically it’s some years off yet.
I want LB to have a friend while he’s still young enough to enjoy it!
It breaks my heart to see him looking so down when friends leave with their dogs. After his birthday he really moped around after his beloved Poppy went home. Just a few days ago a neighbour popped in with her Lab. Now Grace isn’t a ‘play with the youngster’ sort of dog. She tolerated him and they both played a companionable fetch in the garden as we sat and chatted. But I wouldn’t go as far as to say they were friendly. She even grumbled at him a few times for trying to steal her ball!
Yet LB was beside himself. He was so waggy and full of beans! He gave her a slightly wider berth after being told off but he still looked thrilled to bits to have her in his garden. Following her around and doing that goofy look he gets when he’s got company.
He was still looking for an errant tennis ball that had landed in the flower bed when they left. He came racing indoors when he heard the front door shut and went nuts. He checked every room downstairs, double checked the garden and then raced up stairs to check the bedrooms. He poked his head over the edge of the bath (as if guests regularly take a dip on their way out) and he even looked under our bed for good measure! Resigned to the fact that they’d gone, he slumped on the sofa and grumbled (he lays there and woofs quietly to himself). Poor Little Bear.
I do understand OH’s concerns and being the wonder he is, they’re about the dogs. ‘What if,’ he argues, ‘we rescued a dog and we’re wrong? What if LB doesn’t want a pal after all and we undo all the great work on his behaviour. How terrible would it be to have to return a dog to a Rescue.’ And of course he has a point. 😦
But I know what’s right for my dog in the same way that I know when he’s hungry or bored or worried. Granted we’d have to pick the right dog but I’m convinced that he’d be happier with a companion. I feel it!
Hurrumph. That’s my equivalent of laying on the sofa and woofing to myself. 😦
Fingers and paws crossed that we find a compromise soon.
Any ideas/comments very welcome!
Happiness is....friendship - Little Bear and Molly
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