A Royal Visit

This weekend, we had a guest staying with us. Her name was Princess. Princess is a chihuahua who's family went camping for Labor Day weekend. They hired Dude to care for her while they were gone. I don't think she's been apart from them since they adopted her around Christmas so she was a little disturbed but the prospect of another dog her age to play with helped some I believe.

Her family's habits and schedule are a little different than ours though. And, for the first time, I realized just how much that our dogs reflect our families.

We all tend to have a slow start in the morning. We drag ourselves out of bed and into the kitchen for breakfast like a slow moving army of undead. There is very little, if any, conversation and everyone pretty much takes care of themselves as they slowly awaken and get ready for the day. Mind you, we still only need 45 minutes but that is probably as much from a desire to get as much sleep in as possible.

Rocky, although I had not realized it before, reflects that as well. He will get up to go outside around the same time we all hit the kitchen in our pjs. He always has his submissive ears and a very slight tail wag going but he isn't loud or energetic at all. When I let him back in, he'll have a bite of breakfast and then, if I've settled on the couch waiting on the kids, he'll snuggle into my lap and nap a little. It isn't unusual though for him to head right back to bed and promptly fall asleep for a while. Especially if Hubby is still there.

Princess, on the other hand, was not like that. From the little I know of her family's mornings, they always seem to be kind of perky, "good morning sunshine" people. And she jumped up ready for the world. I honestly am curious if she was wondering what was wrong with us. She was ready to play and we all needed a new Duracell.

However, around 8 or 9 at night she was ready for bed. And had already given up on us and decided to sleep on her blanket in the living room until someone invited her to go to bed. Rocky usually doesn't give up on us until about 10 or 11 and then he does just go to bed.

She did adjust to us. I guess after a couple of mornings she figured we were just like that. After camping with her family for lots of Scout years, we've all done the same. Because we're good friends, we make room for the differences. And we've bonded as a result.

Of course, that didn't stop Princess from being overwhelmed with joy when she saw her family coming up the walk. And they were pretty happy to see her too.