Doctor

As if we didn't have enough dog fur in our lives already, we agreed to watch a friend's dog for ten days. TEN DAYS! That sounds like a long time. Doesn't it? And with a dog other than Doctor, aka Doc, it would probably be as pleasant as having Sancho's scratchy little tongue drug across your cheek leaving the scent of rotting eggs lingering near your eyeballs.

Oh, but, Doc is wonderful. He has manners, intelligence and an odor which does not trigger your gag reflex. In other words, he's nothing like my own dogs.



Before Doc arrived, I was a little concerned about how my mutts would behave with him. OK. I was only concerned about how Sancho would treat him. Lola is a very good dog when she isn't near squirrels, cats, or on a leash. She just can't be contained in those instances. Sancho, on the other hand, can be very territorial, demanding and just a general grumpy pain in the ass. And for the first few hours, he pulled his usual little twerpy antics. He didn't want Doc in the house. He didn't want Doc to look at him. He didn't want Doc anywhere near me. He didn't want Doc to take any of his precious, precious oxygen. Oh, Sancho is a full-time job.



By the end of the first day, a strange thing happened. Doc had managed to engage Lola in a full-on game of tag. It had been a long time since I'd seen Lola play like a puppy.



After a couple of days, Doc had somehow figured out all of Sancho's ridiculous rules, and his sweet personality proved to be of no threat. So, they were all eating and sleeping happily inside of our house and playing intensely outside of the house. Yes. Even Sancho got into the games. Astonishing!



It's been so refreshing to have such a fun, well-behaved dog in our house. While giving Doc a giant bear hug this morning, Sarah said, "I love Doc so much." I think we'll all (maybe even Sancho?) miss him when he leaves in a few days. He's welcome to visit us again anytime.