Just to show you how far Oreo has come:

Two years ago when Den came for christmas Oreo barked at him a lot. The first night Den and I were trying to cuddle on the floor, and Oreo jumped in between us and growled.

Tonight Den arrived, this is only the second time he’s been here. Tessa of course freaked out, barking and hiding. Oreo, my little doll, gave a few barks, then walked up to him, sniffed him, then sat down to be petted. When Den and I hug and kiss? Oreo ignores.

It’s like having a totally different dog! I can’t believe how much she’s changed. I have no doubt that if someone was actually trying to hurt me that she would be right in their face, but she’s SO much more accepting of people coming into the house and being around her humans. It’s fabulous to see her so relaxed! And Den’s very impressed.

I am so excited and so proud of my Oreo! She’s been going to the dog park for almost a year now, and Tessa the pup has been here for about 7 months. Both dogs really look forward to walks in the park, they get so excited and really perk up.

Oreo is 9 years old and really been slowing down in the past few years. Well yesterday and today at the park she was doing her thing, trotting around with her tail up when a little white dog came racing up and taunted her a bit, then ran off… and Oreo chased after it. We haven’t seen her run that fast in years! She did it again today, with the same dog. (Dad says maybe she thinks it’s a sheep? lol)

And then, to stun us even more, Tess and Oreo started playing! And not just the normal growl-and-chase that they do back and forth in the house… they were play-wrestling! My dog is a border collie and has NEVER played like that with any dog before, ever. But she was jumping up, shouldering, they were “biting” at each other’s necks, running around… they ran into dad twice, nearly knocked him on the ground. (That was Tessa’s fault - she’s like a truck when she hits).

I just had a huge grin on my face. Oreo acts like a pup again! (She’s also lost nearly 10 lbs since Tess showed up!)

Some dogs, like Zeeke, need to be physically restrained at the front door for fear he’ll bolt. Some cats, too. Oreo and Tessa have never been like that, though - it would never occur to them to leave. They were both brought up the same way, and Oreo’s been allowed loose in the front yard for years and years. Only when we’re with her, of course, and not very often, but she can be trusted. With Tessa following in her footsteps, we don’t have a problem at the front door. Well, other than barking - both of them sound like guard dogs when the doorbell rings, even though as soon as the person steps inside Oreo greets them and Tessa hides.

When strangers come to the door, it’s a juggling act trying to talk while keeping two dogs from shoving their way out the door to greet the person (or, in Tessa’s world, bark at them before running like hell). It often looks like a two-headed monster growing from between my legs.

When it’s a known person at the door, such as a cousin or my mother (who happens to use the front door often), we just open the door and let the dogs out. They swarm around the person, tails a-wagging in greeting. The only hitch is Joey, who used to try to dart out under everyone’s legs. He has since stopped that, thank the light! But the dogs, no problem.

Such was the case early this week when mom came to the door after dropping Cory off - she wanted to complain to dad about something. I wasn’t actually at the door, but I heard her voice rising towards dad before she left back for work.

A half hour later my dad says to me, “Have you seen Oreo?” I actually had not - which is strange, since she’s usually following me around. We started looking for her in all the normal spots - the beds, the couches, under the stairs. No dog. Tessa was out back, so we asked Cory if he had let Oreo outside with her. He hadn’t. We were getting increasingly puzzled when Cory had a brainstorm and ran to the front door and opened it. Sure enough, in walked Oreo, tail wagging in joy at being found. She had been locked out front for half an hour! I must say, that’s never happened before. But she must have gone out to greet mom, and dad closed the door without knowing she was out there. Sheesh!

Luckily, like I mentioned earlier, there is never a fear of her running off. When she was less than a year old and I was still in elementary school, she stayed in the backyard while I was at school. One day I came home to find her in the front yard, tail wagging like crazy, so glad that I came home. She had managed to squeeze her way out through a hole in the gate. She apparently got tired of waiting for me and gone back to get a toy from the backyard, too. She spent the day (who knows how long) laying on the front lawn with her toy, waiting.

Oreo gets locked in some of the basement rooms now and then. She loves those rooms, and as soon as dad opens the door she scampers in and falls asleep in the corner. Sometimes she does it when his back is turned and gets locked in. Now the crazy part is that she won’t let you know she’s in there. We always notice quickly if she’s missing (because, as I said, she’s always nearby), and we’ll look for her and call her name. She never barks. She never scratches. She never does anything, except stand there and stare at the door waiting for us to find her. Crazy dog.

There is no time in my life that I feel more complete than when I have all my furry ones around me. I went to bed and laid down, Oreo on the floor beside my bed, Tessa on the floor a few feet past her. I sat in bed propped up with pillows to read a little while before sleep, and Joey jumped up to lay down beside my leg. He stetched out, sighed a happy sigh, and fell asleep purring. After I snuggled down into my blankets (what little I had left), carefully bending my leg into a comfortable position, Joey stetched again and curled up between my stomach and bent leg. So we laid there in the dark, all four of us. And I thought, how perfect is this. How blessed am I.

:: ::

Oreo hurt herself today. It was in the morning, dad was up with the dogs and I was still in bed. I heard a “YIPE!” and the next thing I knew I had a dog on my bed close to my legs, and she was shaking like a leaf. I’ve never seen her so upset. Dad came in close after, hugging her to him and comforting her, asking her what happened. Of course she didn’t answer, but she did bury her head against him and shook for the next five minutes.

The best we can figure is that she pulled a muscle. They weren’t even doing anything interesting, just dad and the “girls” were coming up the stairs. As Oreo went to go up the first step, she yiped and ran, tail-tucked.

After her intial flight up the stairs and onto my bed in fear, she’s now avoiding the stairs and jumping onto the bed or couches. She may still be sore, but she’s the kind of dog who, if something hurts her, will avoid it for a very long time. She limped for the first little while, but now she seems fine… but very subdued. I think she scared herself pretty bad. For a few hours afterwards she was barely walking around the house, tail hanging, eyes sad. Dad would call her and she’d stand rooted to the spot. After a while, though, she started wagging her tail and grabbing a toy. She’s back to trotting around the table in her favorite game.

So dad’s been coddling her all day. He normally treats her like a little princess, but today it’s been that times three. *laughs* Every time he walks by he gets down on his knees and talks to her softly and gives her a hug. He’s been carrying her up and down the stairs. And she of course is getting all she can out of it, sidling up to him with sad brown eyes and giving him little tiny kisses on his chin.

We figure it might take a day or two for her to get over it - dad and I both suffer pinched nerves and pulled muscles frequently, so we definitely know how it is. If she’s not feeling better I’ll take her to the vet, but we seriously doubt that’ll be needed.

Tessa was more of a terror today than normal - nothing bad, just harassing Oreo. She’d lick at Oreo’s mouth, lick lick lick lick, then snuffle at her ear, then bark, then run around her, then bump her. I asked Tess, “Are you trying to cheer her up, or are you just taking this opportunity to annoy the heck out of her?” I figure it’s a little of both - she knew right off that something wasn’t right, so she was acting up a little towards Oreo, and then to top it off Oreo isn’t standing up for herself as much as normal (as in, she isn’t grumbling every time Tessa starts up), so Tessa’s been getting away with more than usual. I’m sure that’ll change soon, though.

Life is always interesting here.

I’ve always wanted a second dog in the house, but Oreo made that idea iffy. You see, she’s always been dog-aggressive. When she was a puppy I’d take her out often with my friends and their dogs, so it’s not like she was isolated. But I guess that wasn’t enough, and the friends and I grew apart after a few years so the doggy playtimes stopped. So until this year Oreo was pretty hard to take out. She pulled at the leash, and if we saw another dog she’d be barking and and pulling… that was dealable, though. It was when another dog approached her that there were major troubles: she’d growl, first. Then raise a lip. And then she’d air-snap and rush them, all the while sounding like she meant it. She never touched another dog, never hurt anyone… but it still wasn’t very fun. Her whole attitude was “Leave me alone.” This was on-leash… off-leash she was better, but she tended to stay far away from other dogs, and just ran off if one approached her. She’d get aggressive if cornered.

She got better as she got older - her attitude towards humans has increased tremendously. She’s much more laid-back and less anxious. But the dog problem still existed.

A year ago I learned there was a dog park near the house. A huge field, fully fenced. I decided to take Oreo. Now I know a lot of people wouldn’t have done that with a dog like her, but… I can’t explain it, but I know her. I wasn’t worried about a fight… I was more worried about her being terrified. And she was, at first. She sat by my legs a lot, hiding behind me when another dog approached. We spent a lot of time off on our own, letting Oreo approach other dogs on her own terms. At first there was a lot of growling on her part. I was ready to take her out of there if there was a problem, but a surprizing thing happened: they listened to her. All the other dogs, they backed off and politely left her alone. I was stunned - and so was Oreo.

Over several months she became a totally different dog. She now goes into the dog park with her tail confidently raised over her back. She approaches other dogs to greet and sniff. We do laps around the field with other dogs and their owners, the dogs leisurely trotting back and forth, checking out all the smells and sights of the park together. Oreo’s right among them. She still grumbles when playing dogs run into her, sometimes barking to tell them to watch where they’re going. She still doesn’t like pushy, impolite dogs. But really, I can’t blame her for that.

This all happened before the new puppy was added to our household. But despite all her progress, I really worried how she would react to another dog not only in her life, but in her house. Not only a dog, but a young puppy. In our experience, puppies seem to be a lot denser when it comes to heeding Oreo’s warning signals. They’re more exciteable, more pushy, more annoying (to Oreo).

Tessa turned out to be the most lovable, sweetest pup you’ve ever met. She’s now 9 months old, I think, and sweet as can be. She doesn’t have a mean bone in her body. She took to Oreo like a little sister would - Tessa absolutely adores her. When I take Oreo to the vet, or to the groomers, or even just out to the store with me, I am told Tessa sulks around the house, looking for her.

But the change that drives me to tears when I watch, is Oreo. Oreo, my previously dog-hating dog, has blossomed. She still sounds like a grumpy old hag, snarling and growling at the annoying puppy. She puts up a good act, for sure. But then when Tessa walks away, Oreo runs up, pushing her toy at her, then dancing back again. Back and forth they go - growl, run away… run after, prance, chase. They do this daily, back and forth across the living room, around the dining room table. Tessa caught on early how Oreo works. Tessa knows. She barks at Oreo, dropping into play-bow pose. She jumps closer, ignoring the growls and snarls. Tease, tease. Then Oreo explodes in a barking snarl, chasing Tessa down and backing her into a corner. Oreo growls menacingly. Tessa drops to the floor submissively. Then Oreo dashes back for the toy she dropped, and Tessa launches to her feet and runs after. And the whole thing starts again.

You’d think, maybe, that Oreo meant it. And I guess sometimes she does - sometimes she’s had enough. I saw her once back Tessa into a corner, snapping at her. And then I saw Oreo very carefully, very deliberately, place her mouth over Tessa’s muzzle. Then she backed off. It was as if she said, “Okay, young one. That’s enough.” And that was all.

But most of the time, it’s play. I stand there amazed at the change in my dog. She sounds vicious. She sounds like if she catches Tess, bad things are going to happen. But then she prances on the spot, throwing her head back to squeak the toy she’s holding. She bows down in play before running off again. It’s like, at 9 years old, she never knew how to play, and this is her version of it.

The two dogs in the backyard do everything together. Oreo always had a “route” established, every time she was let outside she’d run her circuit to check the perimeter. Now there’s two of them, side by side, running the loop. Then one of them grabs a stick, or a ball, and they chase each other around.

The change in Oreo is physically visible. I took some pictures of her early in the summer: my big tube-dog. She looked like a big fat sausage. One big roll. She weighed probably around 48lbs, which is the genraly weight she’d been at for years, despite strict feeding rations and daily exercise outside. Now, though… now her tummy tucks up and narrows in. Now her weight is down to 41lbs - that’s the lowest she’s ever been in her adult life.

She has more spunk to her now. She’s always eager to grab a toy and play - even when tired she can’t stand us playing with the pup and not her. She insists on playing, too. Her favorite game in the house is chase around the dining room table. She grabs a ball, or whatever toy, and taunts you to chase her. This is a people game, she does not play it with Tessa. And when you chase her, she runs around the table, around and around. She stops if you get too far behind. She goes faster if you catch up. And if you do something foolish like turn around, she doubles under the table to keep going - she always runs in the same direction. She’d been slowing down every year - we’d chase her excitedly, trying to get her going more, but she’d just slow down and stop. Yesterday my dad was chasing her around the table, and she had such a light step. She was out way ahead, dancing along - and it was dad who started losing breath. She still wanted to play. All the while Tessa runs alongside, of course, trying to figure out what Oreo’s doing and wanting to join in. Oreo barks at her with her mouth full of toy. Tessa barks back and grabs another toy - then stands in puzzlement as Oreo just keeps running around the table.

Of all the scenarios I imagined when the puppy was added to the household, this was never one of them. At best we hoped Oreo would tolerate another dog. We never pictured her playing, never pictured them sleeping happily side-by-side. (But never cuddled - that’s Oreo’s personal space). And when I watch them run around the house with their toys, teasing each other and dancing back and forth, my eyes tear up. My baby has grown so much.