Things are rarely as dark as they seem when you’re stuck in the moment.
The dogs are sleeping on the couch and chair behind me, having spent a couple of hours in their pen while I was at a poetry reading and Annie was out with her sister.
After last night, we were scared that we couldn’t leave them together — they went at each other at we were unable to break the tension afterward — but Pat, the trainer, called this morning and talked us down.
Rosie and Sophie, she said, are like teenaged sisters. They’ll fight over almost anything and then move on. At the same time, we have to minimize their opportunities. So all toys are now put away and to be doled out only when we want them to play. If they get territorial, the toys get taken away.
And we need to make sure we make them work, both physically and intellectually, both to tire them out but also to address their innate need to work.
Annie and her sister Susan took them for a 25-minute walk before and Annie and I played a few attention-span games before I showered and left.
I think we’re both still anxious, but it is better. We will get through this. The dogs will get through this.
Hank Kalet 