A Dog Too Many

On Thursday some of our friends had to go out of town for because the wife had a two day interview a few hours away, and the husband was going to look at neighborhoods in case they end up moving. We had made arrangements over a week before for us to watch their 4 year old that night, but I got a slightly panicked call Thursday morning- they had forgotten to make arrangements for their dog.
We have watched their dog before, though it was over a year ago, before Howie came into our lives. He is a Brussels Griffon and only 8lbs. He barely takes up any room and the most difficult thing about taking care of him is not stepping on him. We told them of course he could stay with us.
For future reference- no. Three dogs to the house is not our limit, it is the dogs’ limit. Howie felt very much that he needed to defend his space from the interloper, and also didn’t eat very well. Larry also was not thrilled, and felt the need to put little Marley in his place.
June was the only one who seemed okay with having another dog, but she was not thrilled when Marley tried to interrupt her sparring with Larry. It’s hard enough for her to defend herself from one annoying terrier, when a second little dog got involved, she was not thrilled.

This was actually an important lesson for us to learn, as we were, in fact, pondering adding a 4th dog to the house. Roommate J has been wanting a dog of his own- one that will sleep with him and you know, be his dog. After last week, we have now agreed that is not the best plan. We will remain a 3 dog household.