Dog sitting...

This seems to be the summer of dog sitting. Earlier in the summer Basie came and stayed with us, then I spent 2 weeks walking Merlin, and now Merlin is staying with us.

Elsa has never expressed any concern over Basie- he is so small we think she might not know that Basie is a dog. But other small male dogs she has met have never been any trouble, so we figured Merlin wouldn't be either. For the most part, we were right, however, I think Elsa feels threatened that we are replacing her. She is fine with him being around (they mostly avoid each other, but play in the yard) but she gets very upset if he plays rough (he can chew on, but not shake) her toys.

Bedtime last night was where the real fun was. Elsa had NO intention of letting Merlin up on the bed, and Merlin had no intention of sleeping on the floor. After holding Elsa down on the other side of the bed, and having Merlin come lay down as far away as possible, then petting and calming Elsa- it was all alright. On a normal summer night, Elsa stays for about 30 minutes, then leaves to sleep on the couch. Kevin guessed that she would stay all night. He was close to right.

At midnight the idiot who gives our neighbor a ride (to? from?) work pulled up into the driveway and honked 6 times. Then the wife of our neighbor went outside and yelled for a few minutes, and both of these things bugged the dogs (well, and me) they both sat up and listened. After a few moments, Merlin jumped off the bed to go investigate- completely out of character, Elsa did not. After Merlin did not return, then Elsa- apparently confident she had "won" the battle of the bed, jumped down, and went to the couch to lay down. Later in the night when Merlin came back to sleep on the bed, so did Elsa...

So how do I know all this- I barely slept at all last night, and it wasn't the dogs fault. I went to bed at 11:00 and laid there until 3:00. I slept a little bit but remember the clock saying 4:30 and then the dogs woke me up at 5:30. I went back to bed around 6, slept until 8 when I heard a giant dog fight, which was apparently in my dream, because the dogs weren't near each other. In fact, now, they seem to be doing just fine and have mastered the art of ignoring each other.