Callie and Maisy

[Frannie & Callie]

I spend Thanksgiving with my family in Memphis. This year, "family" is inclusive of Callie, who I adopted in April, 2009. I always stay with my sister, my brother in law (BIL moving forward), and their 7 year old twin sons (my much beloved "nephs"). Sis and BIL have a new addition as well...Maisy, the miniature schnauzer, who is now 7 months old and is tipping the scales at 11 lbs. That's just pretty darn miniature. They also have another dog, Scoobie, a 12 year old blind-ish, deaf-ish, and curmudgenly shih-tzu mix. Because Scoobie is extra furry right now, she may be all the way up to 12 lbs. Into that, I threw Callie...all 40 furry pounds of her, standing easily three times higher than Maisy. Now Scoobie wasn't such an issue. Any time Callie approached Scoobs, Scoobie would just bark at her and unleash her secret weapon...her breath...and Callie would back right off (I can't blame her...Scoobie's breath is rank).

After we arrived, Maisy spend 30 minutes cowering in my sister's lap, shaking, shivering, and emitting a sound like a piglet's squeal. Callie meanwhile made herself right at home, playing with Maisy's toys and chasing the nephs all around the back yard (in a game we call "Callie Tag"). Bit by bit, Maisy came out of her shell. By the end of the night she was attacking Callie with great regularity, her favorite move being a leap to nip on Callie's ears. I felt like my adorable doodle was INSANELY tolerant of Maisy, and was appropriately playful. My BIL saw them playing that first night and scooped up Maisy, telling me that my vicious dog (the one who looks and and acts like a muppet) cannot play with his precious little baby. When I called BS on him, his response was that Maisy had to defend herself. The rest of the night, he wouldn't even pet Callie, because he thought it would upset Maisy.

I was frustrated. Yes there was a large size disparity, but I know Callie and know that when she plays with smaller dogs, she plays MUCH more gently than she does with bigger dogs. Callie actually loves playing with littles and does so all the time at the dog park. I was put out by having her villified, when all that was really happening was that their puppy was getting good play time and lots of exercise.

Then, something magical happened. Maisy slept all night long. She usually wakes up Sis and BIL sometime between 3 and 5 am, and is a restless sleeper (given to doing things like chew on my sister's hair during the night). That night, she didn't even twitch. Suddenly, Callie was was allowed to play with Maisy as much as she wanted (in truth, that puppy wore her doodley tush out!). The nephs have always loved Callie (I think they like that she's so furry and they can play pretty rough with her), my sister loves Callie (she now thinks it's cool to have a dog that you can pet without crouching on the ground), and now BIL has come around and said that Callie is always welcome. Hallelujah!

[Frannie & Callie]

My sister said that Maisy spent all day looking around the house for Callie. I agree Jane...I think it was great for Maisy to be treated like a dog and not a porcelain figurine!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Sounds like having Callie around allowed Maisy to actually be a real dog. I think that's all they really want or need to be happy.

[Dan, Judi, & Timbow]

What a good story! Callie is so great with little dogs! I bet he was just nervous because he's so protective of his little puppy!! Glad you had a good time!!! :-)

[F, Calla & Luca]

What a good doodle ambassador.