Cats get a bad rap.
My reason for this is the much circulated fact about how cats are cold blooded killers. Don’t misunderstand me; even my two indoor cats can’t hide their killer nature. I feel sorry for any bug that invades our apartment. Willow and Tiberious are vicious (to be fair, Willow has a more developed taste for blood). But the true wolf in sheep’s clothing (at least in my apartment) are those adorable pups, with their big brown eyes, wagging tails and puppy dog kisses.

Allow me to share what led me to this conclusion.

The boyfriend and I were suckered. You see, the truth is, as disciplined as we tried to be for our pack, we dropped the ball. You know how it is. Life happens, you get busy, the weather drops to 6 degrees…but what occurred in our home is beyond restlessness and lack of stimulation. It all began with a harmless phrase: “Thor is being bad!”
You have to understand that Thor, who is 3, has always been, for the most part, a good dog. Despite his absolute hatred for small children, he was perfectly crate trained and understood his boundaries better than most toddlers. This isn’t me being a proud mommy either. Strangers would praise his intelligence (and they have).
When Darla arrived, things changed. The differences between owning a 16 pound dog and a 120 pound dog are tremendous, to say the least. Let’s skip over the obvious (or read my previous post), and share the events that led to the power play.

It started with something simple: the bed. As a puppy, the boyfriend let Darla sleep on the bed. Which is fine when your dog weighs about 33 lbs. But when she hit 85, it began to be a problem. At 110…well, you get the idea. We have a queen size bed, and I’m small, but COME ON. Around this time, not only did she grow massively, but she began to push boundaries, like a preteen wanting a cell phone. Again, when a 16 pound dog pushes, one just worries about the little fur ball with a Napoleon complex (or so I naively thought); when a 110 pound dog decides she isn’t potty trained anymore, it is a much bigger problem. The problem was, it wasn’t just her. Thor began to notice Darla’s…rebellion and seemed encouraged by it. It was happening, just like the Revolution was followed by a French one, a Dane was emulated by a shih tzu.

But just like Napoleon learned with Russia, you do not stage a coup during winter. Nope, not with those long hours we were destined to spend together, especially this winter (which was extra cold).

Although, to be honest, while the boyfriend and I won the potty training round, the food round and many other minor battles, I think we lost the war, as we are still forced to share the bed every night. The only difference? The cats now decided they sleep there too.