One Dog + One Puppy...

...sometimes equals chaos. Oh well. Just whose idea was this to get a puppy for Savannah to help her over her post-lost-days depression?

As I type this, Savannah is sleeping in her bed in the breakfast room and Satchmo is sleeping underneath the table in the breakfast room. Satchmo has his own bed, in a corner of the kitchen quite near the breakfast room, but at times this puppy wants to be close to Savannah. And, blessedly, this is one of those times.

For days now, both Savannah and Satchmo have been at each other... each trying to be #1 dog of this house, and neither one succeeding. Satchmo is smaller (much) and faster (much) than Savannah and he can out-maneuver her in their quest for who gets all the toys.  We have two of every dog toy, but Savannah has decided that she wants them all, rather than sharing them with Satchmo. You would be surprised at how many little squeaky-toys Savannah can manage to get into her mouth at the same time. Satchmo, however, manages to figure out which toy she has the least hold on, and that's the one he will grab from between Savannah's teeth and then he's off and running to the other end of the kitchen. When that happens, Savannah's grip loosens on all the toys she's holding and one by one, they drop onto the kitchen floor and Satchmo slides and shifts himself on the kitchen tiles so he can grab one, then the other, then the next, and by the time Satchmo is done playing musical toys, Savannah is worn out and panting in the corner and Satchmo is still running and sliding on the floor.

Comical, when you think of it, but unfair to Savannah, whose 70-pound weight cannot be as graceful and as athletic as a 12-pound puppy whose only aim in life is to capture all the toys. There was a lot of growling and snapping last week between these two dogs, so much so that we started asking friends and neighbors if they would like a puppy, or if they knew of anyone else who would be interested in adopting Satchmo. One of our friends put Satchmo into the RAIN (Rescue Animals In Need) Network, and now his photos are all over various Facebook pages.

My phone isn't exactly ringing off the hook (do phones still do that?) with offers of new homes for Satchmo. And that doesn't surprise me. Just with two particular neighbors here who post all lost-dog and adoptable-dog pictures, there are thousands of dogs out there in need of good homes. (Come on, people... get your pets fixed, for goodness sakes! There ought to be a law.)

With that in mind (the lack of phone calls) I have been trying to encourage Satchmo and Savannah to come to some sort of peace agreement. Which means that I have to stop interfering with their quarrels and let them work it out, unless (heaven forbid) one of them is truly being hurt. I have taken an old wooden spoon out of the cupboard and when the growling/snapping starts, I rap that spoon on the kitchen counter and you'd be surprised how quickly that gets their attention. (My grandmother used to do the same thing when a houseful of grandchildren were playing too loudly or too rough... a few raps of her spoon on a chair or counter-top meant the next rap would be on our backsides.)

This morning, I let the dogs be dogs... they played with the toys, stole them from one another, went running through and around the kitchen and breakfast room, and I just let them be until I heard one of them growl or snap at the other. Then a rap of two of the spoon, and all would be quiet for a few seconds before the play started up again. Satchmo was the first one to stand by the back door... he had played so much that he had to go out into the grass, so out we went. When I came back with him, I took Savannah outside. Within ten minutes of all of that, both Savannah and Satchmo were sound asleep, next to one another on the kitchen tiles. Half an hour later, Savannah moved to her bed, and Satchmo followed her and went underneath the breakfast room table, which is quite close to Savannah's corner.

Having two dogs in this house has meant double the work. Especially in the morning when both dogs need to go outside (Satchmo goes first, since he's the puppy and I know Savannah can hold it longer). Then Sweet Pea (inside cat) needs to be fed and have his litter box cleaned, and then the same procedure for Mickey (outside cat) who has litter boxes in the garage because he sleeps safely in there at night. And then we have Barn Kitty (all black kitten) who showed up last week and I've been feeding him because he's so scrawny and pitiful. And it's only me, only two hands, only two legs, and somehow it all gets done. I may be frazzled at the end, but it all gets done. And gets repeated throughout the day, every day.

My husband took both dogs out for a walk after lunch today. He was out of the house with them for less than two minutes. Both dogs had already been outside not thirty minutes before he decided to see what it was like to walk both Savannah and Satchmo at the same time.  "Walking two dogs is a lot harder than walking just one," my husband told me when he came back into the kitchen.

Welcome to my world.