A Dog’s Life

I haven’t posted about our beloved dog Spike lately. Spike is still an attention hound, and she has gotten a bit “passive-aggressive” about the reduction in attention paid to her now that Jonathan is around. She was peeing on the carpet right next to Jonathan’s changing table for a while - re-marking her territory as it were. But that seems to have stopped after Miriam disciplined the dog. And Spike has been WONDERFUL with Jonathan. She doesn’t complain in the least when Jonathan grabs and pulls at her - she just treats it as being “petted”. The only time Jonathan has really yanked hard, Spike yelped and ran away - and then came back slowly, seemingly trying to make sure Jonathan was OK.

Early this morning, Miriam, Mikaela and Jonathan left for a few days of visiting in Rochester, MN with Miriam’s family. Poor Spike has been beside herself, worrying about her “puppies.” I filled her food and water bowls this morning, right after the airport shuttle picked up Miriam and the kids at about 5:15 a.m. this morning. I looked just before coming up to bed tonight, and her food and water were untouched. She spent the evening either pacing around the house or laying on the rug in the entry hall, looking longingly out the sidelight windows. My friend Darren is here for the night (his AC went out), and we comforted her as best we could by petting her nonstop - but she still got up periodically (passing on being petted) to look around for them. I’m sure she’ll adjust, and my guess is that her food will be eaten when I check in the morning. But I’ll keep giving her the extra TLC until “her puppies” come home.