Self expression

As you probably know by now, I am a HUGE dog lover.  So much so that I have way too many dogs.  One of them is injured this week.  Jake has a lump on his back that has been there for years.  Every time we have him in for his annual shots they tell us it is nothing to worry about. 

This week it grew to probably 4 times its normal size and he has been in a lot of pain.  So hubby took him to the vet and had him examined.  The vet said that he has a tumor and we won't know what it is until we have it surgically removed.  So, we will have surgery on our baby and see what happens.  This brings lots of angst to me because these dogs are my children.  I talk to them, sing songs to them, make up songs for them, etc.  Stay tune for how I handle this as we go along.

But today's story is about a comical side effect of this current injured dog.  Because Jake is injured, I have been sleeping in the guest room with him to ensure that he doesn't get more hurt during the night.  The other dogs have remained in the master bedroom with hubby. 

When Jake was 2 years old, my family convinced me that we needed to get him a playmate.  So, we acquired another dashchund, Roxy.  For 9 years now Roxy has been Jake's 'girlfriend'.  If you ask Jake where his girlfriend is, he immediately goes and finds Roxy.  If Jake is growling at the other dogs and Roxy walks up, he immediately stops growling.  They are dog lifemates. 

So, to get to the point of this story...Roxy got upset with me last night because I had been taking her boyfriend away from her the last couple of nights.  She did everything she could to sleep with Jake and I last night.  But I wouldn't let her.  End of story, right? 

It is never the end of the story around here.  This morning I got up and took all the dogs out to potty.  I got coffee and went up to take a shower.  After I showered, I went back to the guest room to put my makeup on.  When I moved the covers back, a dog had peed on the bed.  Roxy was the only dog that wasn't in the room with me.  I called her in and asked her, 'Roxy, did you pee on my bed?' she wagged her tail and ran into the room.  I interpreted that to mean, 'why yes I did'. 

She continues to punish me this evening.  She jumps on the couch, wants me to raise the covers on the couch and she lays down.  Then she jumps down again.  Then she repeats this over and over and over and OVER!  We'll see what happens when bedtime comes tonight. 

How do you express yourself when you are unhappy with the situation?  Are you straightforward and address things head on or do you wait until someone leaves the room and pee where they sleep?  I hope that I am one that takes things head on.  But it gives me something to think about.