Doggie Suicide Watch

I had to place Lil Dog on doggie suicide watch. She just seemed really sad for a while. Her daily routine had been completely disrupted and she thought her Paw Paw abandoned her.

Lil Dog used to have a daily routine that went something like this:

•  Sleep in until mom makes me wake up
• Get in the car and go to Maw Maw and Paw Paw’s house
• Potty
• Curl up and sleep for the rest of the day
• Wake up and eat if I get hungry
• Hang out with Maw Maw and Paw Paw when they get home from work
• Indulge in some people food before I settle for dog food
• Get picked-up by mom and go home for the evening

Her new routine goes something like this:

• Wake up at 6am
• Be terrorized by Tiny Dog
• Eat/fend off Tiny Dog
• “Walk” aka the death march
•  Be terrorized by Tiny Dog
• Nap, but not in my own bed because Tiny Dog stole it
• Wake-up when Tiny Dog pounces on me
• Runaway from Tiny Dog
• Squeeze in a short nap
• Greet mom at the door when she gets home from work
• Be terrorized by Tiny Dog
• Eat/fend off Tiny Dog
• Death march again
• Finally accept that playing with Tiny Dog is the only option and knock over furniture in the process
• Laugh when Tiny Dog gets put in her kennel
• Sleep

Lil Dog pouting that Tiny Dog stole her bed.

To make matters worse, right after I got Tiny Dog, Maw Maw and Paw Paw left town for a week, so Lil Dog’s routine was not only thrown off but I’m fairly certain she thought they had abandoned her because Tiny Dog came into the picture.

This was the moment she realized she had been abandoned. Fairly certain she was thinking, “Is this really my life now? What did I do wrong? Why don’t they love me anymore?”

Fortunately, they are back now. Lil Dog is working her way out of her funk and starting to accept that Tiny Dog is here to stay. She is also learning that when Tiny attacks, tricking her into a good ole fashion game of tug of war keeps Tiny from chewing on her. This means she is either remembering how to play like a normal dog or figures this is the lesser of two evils even if she doesn’t like it.