The Bond of Two Dogs!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Vern has this thing that he does every time we go to leave in our car.  It starts as I open the front door.  Vern charges outs and spins around to prevent Fudge from getting out the door, unless she wants to wrestle her way out.  Sometimes, Fudge is able to slip past him and leap to her freedom and then she dances off with him in hot pursuit.  Next, Vern jumps in the car and does the same thing from inside the car.  He guards the van sliding door and admission for letting Fudge inside is one quick toss about as she gains entry.  Sometimes, Fudge runs around the car and taunts Vern as he goes from window to door to back of the car as she happily goes by.  Lots of times, I help her out by opening another door for her to catch Vern by surprise, but even though this method worked in the beginning, he has caught on that there are multiple entry spots for Fudge and he has to stay on his toes to keep her out. It seems he has wised up about this, but just in case you think this smartness has carried over to other things, the second thing he does after finally allowing Fudge access to the van is to look around for Kleenex to eat.  The other day John told him to knock it off and I said, “It is their thing.  They enjoy this little game.”  I know it is breaking every training rule imaginable to let this go on and sometimes it does pluck at my nerves, but mostly it makes me smile at how much fun two dogs can have just trying to get in the van.  Over the years, I have been less inclined to sweat the small stuff and my kids will tell you I was never as amused when they raced to beat each other into the car to get in the front seat. In those days, we had left and right day, front and back day, and a whole lot of mommy wishes she had been more diligent about birth control days.

 

The thing I like about my dogs is there is no squealing, “Mom, she is in my seat,” but rather they work it all out with very little interference from me and I appreciate that more than I can say.  Unlike my dogs, my kids always seemed to involve me in their squabbles and never seemed to catch on that solving it amongst them would be a better option.  My parenting style was that I sided against the person who made the most amount of noise for no other reason than I wanted the noise to stop and cries of “that’s not fair,” fell on deaf ears, or in my case, ears that needed a rest.  Dogs are just different. Vern knows he has no chance of keeping a ball in his mouth when Fudge is around and Fudge knows to let Vern eat first so she can have her private eating time later. Vern can toss Fudge around like a rag doll, up to a point, and then when Fudge has had enough, she does something to make him stop and usually he freezes himself in one place to let her know he got the message.  Sometimes, they will both just look at each other in a funny way and just like that, a romp is on and they will take to leaping and flying through the air in hot pursuit of each other and then as quickly as it started, it is over.  I really can’t imagine one dog without the other, although I feel Fudge would fare better as an only dog, although when Vern is gone she is out of sorts by the end of the day.  Vern, on the other hand, needs Fudge and I really believe if something ever happened to Fudge, Vern could not be an only dog. 

 

I believe dogs form strong relationships with other dogs and whenever I hear of a bonded pair in rescue getting separated, it keeps me up at night.  I also know that dogs ending up in a rescue situation are at the mercy of the rescue organization who sometimes have to make hard decisions in order to get both pets adopted, but in a perfect world, I sure wish it did not happen.  My perfect world also has dogs staying in one loving home for the duration of their lives and never having to know what confusion, fear, cruelty, or what being unloved and unwanted feels like. My perfect world also has me being thin and able to eat anything I like without gaining a pound, but that is a whole other story. I keep going back to luck of the draw and how unfair life can be for dogs sometimes and how lucky dogs like Fudge and Vern happen to be.  It really is just luck of the draw and most of our dogs got lucky.  Right now, scrolling down the front page are Sadie and Shadow, and everyday I wake up and hope to see pending or adopted under their names and hear that someone adopted both of them together.  I want to think that even though they have lost their home, they won’t lose each other. Just like Fudge and Vern, I bet Sadie and Shadow have those things that they do to each other for fun, a silent means of communication, and a sense that life is right when they wake up and the other one is there.   I just keep thinking there is someone out there who can adopt these dogs together and find out what those of us with two dogs already know……that life can be very sweet with two dogs.  In my perfect world they will soon be together in a great forever home.

Let's help them any way we can!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Laurie, I really think you may have been a dog in another life, you seem to understand them so well. :)

Thank you for posting this, Sadie & Shadow need all the attention they can get. All it takes is just one special person!