Big scare

As I mentioned in a previous post, Rufus likes to grab Amelia by the collar and drag her around. Well, tonight he got ahold of it and somehow twisted it around his lower jaw so that he was stuck and she was choking. Tim and I had to hold them both still against their panicked thrashing and cut her collar loose enough that we could roll Rufus over and get them both free. Very scary for all of us as Amelia was running out of air and Rufus' teeth were wedged in there tight. Immediately after they were rescued, both sniffed and licked each others' face as if to say "Hey, no hard feelings."

Rufus and Amelia

Things have worked themselves out between our Rufus and his sister, Amelia. They are inseparable and take turns being obnoxious to one another. Rufus loves to grab ahold of one of Emmy's ears or legs or her collar and try to drag her outside to play. Amelia still takes Rufus' toys and treats and always eats first. They are barkin' buddies who alert each other to the presence of cats, people and sirens. They are jointly responsible for destroying any stray sock, sweater or magazine that happens to fall within reach and together have successfully ousted one or the other of us from bed (whereupon one dog sleeps with Mom and one with Dad. Usually.) Walks are twice as tricky with two adolescent adventure dogs, but we're getting there, slowly.

It's so worth it when they settle down and lay their noses together during a nap or when they lick each others' faces affectionately. I love my dogs. I'm lucky to have them.

.

Enter the Buster...

Well, we brought Buster home and introduced him to Rufus. They laid into each other for about five long minutes before devolving into a game of tag. Rufus came out the top dog, although he doesn't realize that it's now unnecessary to remind Buster of the fact every ten minutes.

At one point today, I tried to teach Rufus to share his toys. I let him pick the one he wanted, then gave Buster the other one. Rufus would abandon his toy to steal Buster's, so I'd just pick it up where he dropped it and hand it to lil' Buster after he absconded with the other toy. This merry-go-round continued for quite some time...

They still argue, mostly because Rufus is rather dense when it comes to the "okay, you win" part. The rest of the time they get along really well, though; and the cats are quite happy now that Rufus has someone his own size to chase around.

Rufus found this face-pull hilarious: Me? Not so much, thanks.