I miss my dog

It has been one week since I took Lucy to live at my dad's. I miss her.

Since last Friday, I have visited her 3 times and picked her up for an outing to my place/work afterward. I can say that I feel validated that I made the right decision. The first visit I went over in the evening sans baby. She was happy to see me, but a little concerned/stressed that I was there. I think she may have wondered if I was coming to take her back. She spent most of my visit obsessing over my cat that was outside the window meowing at her.

She has a thing for cats. She likes to stalk them, herd them etc. But if the cat comes straight for her in a friendly, or not friendly manner, she freezes, throws out a ton of calming signals or leaves. She poses no threat to cats. My dad was a little surprised that for almost 2 hours she was staring and pacing at the door/window. He said normally she does that for 10 minutes or so, then stops, even if the cat is still there. I suppose I make my dog neurotic.

When I went to leave, she came outside with me, made an obvious choice to walk past my car, pee on the lawn and go back and sit on the porch. It was clear she did not want me to load her into my car.

A few days later I went to see her with the baby to pick her up to go to work with me later that night. She was happy to see me, and surprisingly, the baby as well. Even gave her a few kisses and played fetch with her. She reluctantly loaded into my car when it was time to go. When we got to my place things started to go downhill.

Lex was over the moon to see her. He was wagging and sniffing and eliciting play. She pretended he did not exist! He gave up after a short while and was very forlorn about it. Then Elsie began her evening whining and Lucy lost her mind. She was up on the couch, in my face, licking me, trying to get in my lap and as close as she possibly could. Lex began to also look concerned from Lucy's concern! Thank goodness my husband came home within an hour and I was able to take the two freaked border collies out and away from the house to go to work for a while.

At work, they both had a blast. They love showing off their obedience skills and are very comfortable with the safe environment I provide for them where they can see me, but not be bothered by other dogs or people. After the classes, they got to zoom around the empty store visiting the critters and employees as I shopped for some supplies. They both had huge grins on their faces when we went out to the car and happily got into their crates for the ride home.

At the last minute, I decided it might be best to take Lucy back to my dad's and not have her spend the night since she obviously had no desire to be at our place. She was very appreciative when I brought her back, greeting my dad and jumping up on HER ottoman!

I also visited her today with much better results. I had my daughter with me and we played fetch, did some tricks for treats and hung out for about an hour. When I left, she was exercised and satisfied. No signs of stress.

While I am happy that she is doing well, I do miss her. I miss strange things though. Having Lex here, means I do get to still have a dog around. There are just things that Lucy does better then Lex!

For example, I miss that Lucy is fluffy. I really liked scratching her fluffy neck! Lex is not so fluffy, and he doesn't like his neck scratched. He prefers his butt scratched lol.

I miss that she cleans up messes and plates really well. Lex is picky and he has such a lazy tongue. My floor is messier without Lucy here and my dishes need to be pre-washed before going into the dishwasher now.

I miss her greeting me at the door. Lex always seems to be napping when I come home, so his greeting is a bit delayed.

I miss her protectiveness. I have always felt very safe with Lucy around. I had no doubts in my mind that should I ever be in danger, Lucy would try her hardest to protect me. She has proved this several times. Once by saving me from some evil rams and once by fiercely growling at several homeless men that were converging upon me on a walk. Do I know if they were harmless or not? No, but I felt threatened and she didn't hesitate to step-up. Lex is the kind of dog who does a spooky bark and then hides behind me or takes off in the face of danger. I love him none the less and didn't raise my dogs to be watch dogs, but I still miss the security I felt with Lucy.

Good thing is, I still get to see her and scratch her neck and have her greet me when I go to my dad's place.