The dogs have especially been a source of huge concern, and I’m not sure what to do about them. A few weeks, we ended up in the emergency room because Tucker bit G in the face. It was a Fri night (of course, the best time to visit an ER room). Gregg was a bit buzzed so some of it could be blamed on that, I suppose. Tucker was laying on my lap on the couch (I know, I know, that’s our problem right there, we let the stupid dog on the couch, but I don’t want to hear it). He was all snuggled up half asleep. G kicked the other dogs out before bedtime, and Tucker refused to budge. So G kind of laughed a little and came up to KISS him in the nose. Bam, two seconds later, before we’d even known what happened, there was blood dripping from G’s lip and chin. Turns out that the stupid dog had bitten him in two spots and one looked deep enough to need stitches. So we spent a lovely night in the H-town ER (where apparently whole familias congregate – after a while I was tempted to just leave G there and go home but felt guilty just cuz everyone else came with a posse). Anyway, he got stitches in both spots and walked out sporting a big bandage on his chin:
The trip brought on 10 days of quarantine for all three dogs (at our HOUSE, so I’m not entirely sure what the point was) and a huge ER bill (totally separate blog post later on). And of course a shit load of worry on our parts about our kid getting mauled by Tucker. He’s always been a bit protective of his personal space, which is the whole reason we’ve both been getting in his face a bit more these last few months. We figured it would help him get used to getting poked and prodded. Clearly he has a long way to go.
A couple of weekends later, we had some friends in town who had 2 boys, a 3yo and an 18 month old. And the dogs did surprisingly well. The older boy was warned about Tucker “being a bad dog” and understood that to mean run the other way when that black one comes up on you trying to sniff you up (that’s the weird thing too, Tucker likes getting in YOUR face, just not the other way around. And he seemed awfully curious about both the boys). Bandit ignored them entirely. And Mia let them chase her around and grab her randomly to pet her. She was most interested in them being eye-level, because it gave her great licking access. And let her steal food right from their fingers. She even nibbled on tortilla chips right from their hands, not because they were trying to give them to her but because she managed to sneak them away before they realized what was going on. But she was gentle and overall, I started to feel like, maybe things wouldn’t be so bad.
BUT then there’s been issues with Mia and Bandit. Well, basically Mia being a turd to Bandit. It actually has been an ongoing issue for a while. Both are female and have always had it in each for each other a bit. But lately, poor Bandit has been getting old and I think Mia has been trying to take advantage. Especially when it’s just me around, she starts growling and bullying her. Around treats, their beds, who gets to hang out closer to me, you name it, she seems to be ready to fight for it. But two minutes later, she’d been egging Bandit on to play, so I never knew which Mia I was dealing with – Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde.
And the problem is that Bandit never seems to either (because stupid Mia is clearly more unpredictable than even me, now that I'm preggers). It was especially an issue when G was out of town a while back. And when I told him after he got home, we got into a little tiff over it (well, I wouldn’t call it tiff. Basically he made a comment about how it doesn’t happen when he’s around, and I, feeling especially hormonal and bitchy, went ballistic. But I swear, he had this TONE, like it was my fault!). So rather than discussing the issue rationally like adults (and telling him about the trainer recommendation I’d gotten), we fought over it and dropped the issue.
Until it all came to a head last week. I went into work late one morning and was walking and feeding the dogs before I took off. Usually that’s G’s job in the mornings, but he had a meeting and I felt like sleeping in anyway. Things were fine until I was about to head into the shower. I was in the middle of moving one of the dogs beds from the bedroom to the living room where the dogs like to lay during the day. And I guess both Mia and Bandit were following me, and that wasn’t ok with Mia because she started growling. And before I knew it, she was on top of Bandit ATTACKING her. And OMG, it was the worst fight they’d ever gotten into. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t drag them off each other. Poor Bandit was on the bottom and actually started whimpering finally. It must have lasted like 30 seconds but felt like forever. I finally dragged Mia outside and went psycho on her. To the point where - and I'm not proud of this - I'm kind of surprised she didn't end up with broken ribs. Came in to find Bandit bleeding all over the floor. And I mean BLEEDING. I was crying.
Until it all came to a head last week. I went into work late one morning and was walking and feeding the dogs before I took off. Usually that’s G’s job in the mornings, but he had a meeting and I felt like sleeping in anyway. Things were fine until I was about to head into the shower. I was in the middle of moving one of the dogs beds from the bedroom to the living room where the dogs like to lay during the day. And I guess both Mia and Bandit were following me, and that wasn’t ok with Mia because she started growling. And before I knew it, she was on top of Bandit ATTACKING her. And OMG, it was the worst fight they’d ever gotten into. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t drag them off each other. Poor Bandit was on the bottom and actually started whimpering finally. It must have lasted like 30 seconds but felt like forever. I finally dragged Mia outside and went psycho on her. To the point where - and I'm not proud of this - I'm kind of surprised she didn't end up with broken ribs. Came in to find Bandit bleeding all over the floor. And I mean BLEEDING. I was crying.
I called G and started crying some more and yelling about how he should have believed me when I told him we had a problem. Which got him all po’d cuz it’s not like he DIDN’T believe me ever. Bandit was picking up her foot too and wouldn’t let me look to see where she was bleeding from. The whole thing was a mess. And I was a frickin’ mess. Of course I blame the pregnancy for all the emotional crap but it was pretty stressful. I mean, seriously even when I thought or told friends about it days later, I still wanted to start crying. And I even told G we should get rid of Mia (which has to tell you how emotional I was about the whole thing – that dog is like my first-born, despite the fact that she’s a total witch).
I was a mess when I finally got into the see the vet with Bandit, too. I think they spent more time consoling me than looking after Bandit. And said that it was probably me being pregnant that was exacerbating the whole dog tension in the first place (apparently dogs are really sensitive to this sort of thing and she’s probably feeling especially protective of me right now. That, plus their usual issues and Bandit getting older are probably not helping either). Great. That’s just awesome.
Anyway, so clearly we have some big problems on our hands that we need to deal with before the baby comes. And life has been anything but boring these last few weeks. They say that babies can hear stuff outside the womb now and get comfortable with the sounds that they hear most frequently. Wonderful -- this little chinese cabbage is going to come out feeling perfectly comfortable with the sounds of dogs fighting and me yelling/crying.
I was a mess when I finally got into the see the vet with Bandit, too. I think they spent more time consoling me than looking after Bandit. And said that it was probably me being pregnant that was exacerbating the whole dog tension in the first place (apparently dogs are really sensitive to this sort of thing and she’s probably feeling especially protective of me right now. That, plus their usual issues and Bandit getting older are probably not helping either). Great. That’s just awesome.
Anyway, so clearly we have some big problems on our hands that we need to deal with before the baby comes. And life has been anything but boring these last few weeks. They say that babies can hear stuff outside the womb now and get comfortable with the sounds that they hear most frequently. Wonderful -- this little chinese cabbage is going to come out feeling perfectly comfortable with the sounds of dogs fighting and me yelling/crying.
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