SIBLING RIVALRY

Sophie has found her voice and she is Zen Dog no more. When she came to live with us she was very very sick with an upper respiratory infection that was moving into pneumonia. I took her to the VET and she was put on lots of medicine--shots, pills, and a nebulizer.

She had lost so much weight at the pound and while on the street that she was in danger from emaciation. Plus, she was so sick that she would not eat. The VET had us force feeding her with the equivalent of a small turkey baster. She was being force fed the canned food they feed dogs in the doggie ICU. They had us dumping a can of it into the blender, adding a can of water and a fish oil pill and turning everything into a slurry. Then, down the throat it went with the small turkey baster.

So, she got through that and is now eating everything she can find. We had to go through dry food mixed with canned food with a cup of water (to make gravy) and heated in the microwave for 40 seconds. After about a week of that, she went to straight dry food. She expects to be fed a minimum of three times a day. First thing in the morning, she wants to go out and pee. Then, she stands at her empty bowl until the empty bowl magically fills. Needless to say, she is gaining weight by leaps and bounds or maybe by pounds and pounds and pounds.

The quiet, contemplative, laid back Zen dog is gone. She goes in the back yard and barks to high heaven at the soccer field full of children behind our house. She seems to think it is her job to drive the evil potential invaders away. I was so shocked the first time I heard her deep baritone voice because she had not made a sound in the weeks she's been here.

She and Dakota just do not get along. They are about the same size now, but Sophie is rapidly outpacing Dakota in size. She looks smaller because her coat is short and slick, but even at her skinniest she was only about five pounds less than Dakota at her heaviest. And, Dakota is all primarily fur.

You cannot leave them alone with each other. The fights are quite showy and very loud. This morning Sophie (who had already eaten) sneaked into Dakota's area and attempt to steal her food. Needless to say, a fight ensued. Yesterday, I was gone and Eric took them out in the back yard together. A fight ensued apparently brought on my the fact that he was not petting either one of them. Right now, Sophie is sulking in the back yard and Dakota is sprawled across the French doors just in case Sophie has a key and tries to enter the house.

They are both going to need to learn who is boss and it's me---not them. We may need to go to non aggression classes. I'm just not going to tolerate this!