Four Tails Lampwork

Bella and Justin had their first spat-and-make-up, which I had expected as they work out their relationship.

It began with the rawhide flip, which is a rare treat in my house. Justin loves them. In fact, while Justin is Theta Dog in almost all areas, there are two things he will fight seriously over: entry to his crate, and his rawhide flip. I gave them each a flip last night, and, as expected, Bella waded happily into hers, but Justin went off to a corner of the yard to lick his flip. He won’t rip it to shreds and chew it for a long time; he has to carry it and sniff it first–sometimes for days.

Bella, as you have guessed, is a dominant Corgi, and she tried to take Justin’s flip and let him have her half-chewed flip. The two do this dominance-trade with food, to the point where I give Bella Justin’s portion and vice versa, so they each end up eating their own portion without realizing it. Anyway, I heard a serious snarl, scuffle, and aggrieved yelp, and knew instantly what had happened. Bella was standing near the door, looking hurt and puzzled, and Justin had *both* flips. I comforted Bella, retrieved Bella’s flip, and put each flip in the appropriate crate. End of trouble for the night.

However, Bella had had her position as alpha challenged, and this morning she moped, looking dejected, ears drooping, face woebegone. She would not even eat a Milk Bone I gave her. Finally I picked Justin’s flip up and put it away (Bella had finished chewing hers), replaced it with a Milk Bone for Justin, and ignored the dogs for a while. I could hear Justin crunching his treat. When I looked around again, Bella was curled up, nose near her Milk Bone, and Justin had come to curl around her, carefully keeping his nose away from the treat. Finally, Bella unbent and ate her Milk Bone. I invited both dogs up on the dog couch for a mutual cuddle. Now Bella and Justin are curled up together, sleeping back to back, companionable and happy again.

Tags: Bella, dogs, Justin

Over the last few months poor Justin has been reacting less well to my fosters. It isn’t that he doesn’t welcome them — he welcomes them too much, and mourns them when they find their Forever Homes. He cried soft little whimpers after Nilla left, poor guy. I thought about a permanent foster, but the AGA officials thought Justin was too active to make that a comfortable situation for an old or sick dog.

So I began thinking about another dog, vaguely. Times are dicey financially, and I do have mild allergies to animals, and already have three of my four tails. On the other hand, I do only have three tails, and am used to four, so …. Poodles are hypoallergenic, but I didn’t want to mess with the grooming A Golden or a Lab would be lovely, but in my house there wouldn’t leave that much room to foster. Plus I am allergic to dogs AND cats, and the thought of the dander of three larger dogs –mine and a rescue–was too much. Then I was idly browsing and saw Bella, at Atlanta Pet Rescue … a Corgi, like my Piglet, and named Bella, like my 18 year old cat I lost this October. It wouldn’t hurt to go look, I told Art of the Firebird, my business partner. well, she said it first, but I happy allowed myself to be enabled! Of course, Justin (who did not like the smell of Shelter, TYVM) came along. And of course, I came home with a Cardigan Corgi –a quick decision if ever there was one

Bella is two years old, and a lovely, active, happy girl. She had belonged to a family who couldn’t care for her, and had only been in the Atlanta Pet Rescue shelter for a few days. She’s fairly dominant–she is a Corgi, after all–but has realized that I am the pack leader. Bella is a sweet-tempered, smart, inquisitive girl who has that typical Corgi busy-ness and Urge To Herd! She leaps up to the top of my porch wall and surveys everything, sniffing the wind, as high as a Corgi can get. Bella has also discovered my big picnic basket of dog toys, and has been enthusiastically killing the squeaky toys. So far she hasn’t ripped any of them up, but I suspect no small paper box will be safe from this girl.

Justin and Bella bonded instantly and really seem to be having a lot of fun together. Bella is absolutely fearless, and loves to run after Justin. Justin’s legs are four times longer than Bella’s, and he can run faster and leap over her entirely, but that doesn’t stop her. He bowls her over, and she comes right back and leaps on him, tail wagging madly. They wrestle, and chase, and chew on each other. She gets Justin running, then calculates his trajectory and herds him off. Justin, for his part, is leaping and springing around in a way I haven’t seen for a while. Maybe a dog more Justin’s size would have been smarter, but I figured a Corgi could handle Justin as well as a bigger dog … and eat less, and have a houseful of personality to boot. And I love them! Corgwyn are big dogs with short stumpy legs.

Bella is a Cardigan Corgi, so she is longer and more bowlegged than a Pembroke Corgi, and has a tail where they do not. The shelter says that she’s a mix, so her ears flop instead of perking up. My previous Corgi, Piglet, was a Pembroke, so he was taller, squarer and tail-less. Otherwise, the two are remarkably similar, as you can see by looking at these pictures of Piglet–red and white coats, stance, and sheer verve. If Bella’s a mix, the Corgi genetics won out! As I said to Nilla’s adopters, who cares if she’s 100 percent purebred? Bella looks and acts like a Corgi, and as I love Corgi behavior, who cares if there’s something else? Who knows WHAT is in Justin? It doesn’t matter–he is 100% adorable Wigglebutt.

Though Bella needs to lose around 8 pounds, I don’t think that will be a problem with the way she plays! Losing the weight will be a priority, though. You can see that Piglet was in a wheelchair–a K-9 Cart. Piglet had been allowed to get too heavy by my great-aunt, and even though when I inherited him I got his weight down to a healthy 33 pounds and gave him good exercise, the extra weight had set him up for paralysis when he was ten years old. At six years old he was 54 pounds and had never had the opportunity to run, jump, or build up his muscles and skeleton. I am watching Bella carefully to make sure she doesn’t strain her back, especially because she is so active, and I will make sure she loses those last 8 pounds. Typical Corgi, though–you can see paralysis didn’t slow Piglet down one little bit, and Justin’s size doesn’t worry Bella in the slightest. After all, both were bred to herd cattle.

Justin seems to be very happy with his new little sister, though he’s not as sure about the fact that she’s the boss They sleep side by side, or curled up together; they race, and chase, and chew contentedly on each other’s feet. And when they are both tired, they retreat to their individual crates and doze. Are they not too cute?

So I am going on a foster dog hiatus. We aren’t giving up! Bella is small enough that a larger dog or two won’t be a problem, and she is big enough in spirit that she can keep up with a bunch of Goldens. I want to make sure, in fact, that neither she nor Justin becomes too territorial. However, I want Justin and Bella to settle in and get used to each other before I bring in a temporary dog–and to get used to the fact that they both are STAYING. Once they are down pat with their routine, then I will go back to fostering. Can’t you just see Bella herding the Golden pack?

Tags: Bella, dogs, Justin