Four Dog Week

Far too often I allow my lack of pictures to prevent me from posting on Darby's Daily.  My camera is a pain in the butt to grab and get going, and by the time I do, the dogs have noticed and decided to stop whatever cute thing they were doing to stare at me expectantly.

So, no, there are no recent pictures in this blog post.  Which is a shame because watching what I've been watching this afternoon deserves documentation.   I hope you can be happy with a story.

Our friends Mike and Amber needed someone to watch their dogs this weekend.  Christian, figuring a dose of four dogs at one time might deter me from wanting any more, offered for us me to watch them.

We've watched Hank before.  He's a lankly yellow lab mix with enough nervous energy to power several household appliances.  Hank is super skinny and somewhat shy until he gets the lay of the land.  Hank would melt into you if he could.  Literally melt into your leg in the way that most people love about labs and goldens, but in the way I have come to hate after experiencing the perfect balance of cat-like traits and dog-like traits that corgis are.  Hank is tall.  So tall that he towers over the entire gang of pups.   Especially his brother Harley... who is a mini dachshund.

Harley is tiny.  He is a black and brown medium coated weiner.  He can be sweet, but mostly he just runs around like a complete maniac.  Holding him in your arms is like holding onto a violently vibrating  football... with hair.  Harley and Hank make an interesting pair, with the one hardly coming up to the others  knees, and both acting as foils to my corgis on either end of the spectrum.

Harley thinks he is a ladies man.  He spent several minutes following Bonnie's butt around with his nose.  Something that I have to say is a bit unsettling to watch when it goes on for much longer than a second or two.  I was just waiting for Bonnie to wheel around and beat the living $h!T out of him... but it never happened.  In fact she didn't give much notice to any of them.  She just went about her business as usual, sniffing things, laying down, getting up, coming over for a pet.  A single lady in a room full of neutered boys.  I guess she knows where she stands.

Apparently Harley also has an interest in Bailey's nether regions.  Bailey sat there, ears back, with a rather disgusted and worried expression on his face while Harley got in close for a sniff.   Poor Bailey, oscillating back and forth between worried, curious, jealous, and offended.  He wasn't sure what to make of the newcomers.  At first he was excited, then he decided he should be jealous because mom's attention was diverted.  So then he started barking and sitting up on his butt to get my attention (which worked -- because I can't resist him when he does that).

So there I was.  Four oddball dog personalities milling around on my deck, trying to work out whatever social hierarchy there was as politely as possible. Sort of like teenagers at a garage party with no food and bad music.  There were no incidents but you could sense the tension.  It is funny how dogs often mirror stereotypical human personalities.  Bonnie, the confident girl with good hair and dance moves.  Harley, that short guy who thought he had way more going on than he did.  Harley, the good looking jock who got tongue tied around girls.   And Bailey, the somewhat preppy nerd who was just a bit too feminine.

We have the boys until Friday morning.  Who knows what will happen between now and then. :)