Dealing with Weather

This is the same rose I photographed a couple days ago. In the hot summer months a bud like this transforms into a full blown blossom in one day. So this bud is an indicator of the current weather.

On the home front, the weather in this house is crazy! I am feeling like a failure as a "dog mom."

We've got three K-9s living in this home. Chloe arrived last December 26. She was 6 months old. Mitzi and Max arrived on February 6th. They had turned 2 years old the previous December. They had a litter of puppies the April before they turned 2. We had all three of them neutered as soon as we got them. It was obvious from the get-go that Chloe was jealous of them and wanted me to herself.

Mr. Fun & I figured they'd all adjust and adapt and over time they'd work out the order of things. And they did with Chloe continuing as the alpha dog; even though it did not appear that Mitzi was going to accept second place willingly.

In the past two weeks these two female K-9s have taken an ugly path with Mitzi deciding she isn't going to accept second place. Mitzi nips and bites at Chloe's back legs; they've gotten quite vicious with each other and Mitzi seems to know she's winning and does not back down.

Chloe is tried of getting the stink-eye from Mitzi, and shakes and keeps her tail tucked between her legs. If I scold Mitzi, she misbehaves more. If I hug Chloe to reassure her, Mitzi misbehaves more. This seems to be a lose-lose situation.

We've emailed Mitzi and Max's former owners to see if they are still without a dog. They gave us these two because they had moved into a mobile home park in Orange County from living on a 20-acre rural spread in Fresno. The mobile home park only allows each residency to have one dog (they thought no one would notice that they had two). So they wanted to give away one dog; the day we arrived there to get one, Max, they gave both of them to us because they thought the two were inseparable. We were thrilled. They were both so cute.

It is not our desire to give Mitzi back, but watching her antagonize Chloe is not acceptable and most frustrating. I think the former owners favored Mitzi -- she was their #1. Here we've tried not to have any of them be #1. They are each unique. They each get special attention in ways that they most need it.

So, I am at my wit's end. We were going to take them to the kennel on Thursday and Friday of this week and head to the ocean for my birthday celebration, but I'm thinking now that that is not such a good idea.

They've always all stayed in the same large room at the kennel and I don't think currently that would be good, but putting one of them in a separate kennel room doesn't seem right either. I think Chloe would be scared all by herself in a cage. I think Mitzi would just get meaner. In the next few days we need a miracle.

Good night from our K-9 crazy world.
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol