Friday, June 15, 2012

Chaos Unleashed (the canine version)

So this past weekend I had the enviable pleasure of hosting Lola, Miss Lee and Music Man's beloved miniature dachshund.  She arrived on Friday and stayed through Sunday evening. 

You all know my household is stuffed full of pets and you would think that adding an extra eleven pounds of fur wouldn't be that big of a shift in chaos.  Oh but you would be so wrong.  There's a lot of chaos packed in Lola's little body.

For example, here is Nora, our decently sized mutt being followed by Lola...





Nora has about a five to one size advantage over Lola.  Evidently she is not aware of this as she is terrified of Lola.  This is the closest Lola managed to get to Nora.  Usually what happened is that Nora would see her coming and get up and move away.  Several times she got cornered and would leap over whatever was around to avoid having Lola actually touch her.  This included toys, instruments and other animals. 

Izzy actually wanted to "play" with Lola but I stopped that in it's tracks.  Izzy likes to poke things into running so she can chase them down.  Her prey drive is just a tad bit developed for leisurely play dates with small, furry animals (including dachshunds apparently).  They did lay together nicely in the house, but outdoors all bets were off.  Lola seemed to realize this and would generally stick close to me when we were all outside together.

The cats however were a totally different game for Lola.  Oh my goodness the cats. 

The first thing that happened on Friday when Lola arrived is that Tiberius wanted to come see the new guest.  Ti is a very good host and greets everyone that comes through the front door.  He's very outgoing and very much a busybody.  So he was about five feet from the kennel when I opened the door.  Apparently in the short time that she was in the house prior to me opening the gate, Lola noted and locked on to the this new creature.  As soon as the door was open, she BURST! out of the kennel and straight for the cat.  Tiberius, he of the even temperament and generally lazy demeanor, didn't know what to do with this flying furball but instinct kicked in and he started to run.  Only, not really run.

I'm not sure if he was just confused, didn't really care or was really just too lazy to run full speed but he was more loping than running.  He went around the table, around the couch, into other rooms and back again.  The problem was that Lola could fit in all the places that are generally considered "safe" because our two dogs are too big to fit.  So Ti would come loping out from behind the couch looking slightly puzzled and right behind him would be Lola, looking absolutely ecstatic.  Around and around they went, Ti looking progressively more "what the hell?" and Lola grinning behind him, ears flying in the wind and tongue hanging out.  Eventually I was able to safely corral Lola and pick her up.  Tiberius stopped, looked at us with disgust and walked away.

But from that moment on, Lola's sole purpose in life was to find (and hopefully chase!) the cats.

The biggest issue is that Lola is still a baby, she just turned one, so her hunting skills are less than stellar.  Case in point:  here is Lola searching for the Antagonizer in Master J's messy room...


As you can see, the cat is about two feet away, in plain sight, but Lola can't seem to find her.  It took her a solid three minutes to figure out where the cat was.  And then this happened...


Even closer...


I gotta give the Antagonizer credit for putting up with this invasion of personal space and not panicking.  As obnoxious as she generally is, she's very good natured for the most part.

As for Finnegan,



well let's just say he spent his time praying that Lola wouldn't notice him.

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