[Dailydrool] Back home again

[Elizabeth Lindsey]

I've just returned from a trip to the Cape to see an old friend. Ken  
was out of town for part of that time, so Jennifer took care of our  
Elsinore and young Charlie. Apparently Charlie was thrilled to see  
Lola, Jennifer's boxer-beagle mix, and Lola was just as delighted to  
have him show up. They played, ate, and slept together for five days.  
Elsinore and Owen (the basset) are like an old married couple who  
grump at each other but also give each other great comfort because  
there's such a deep love between them. Chloe, the mystery mix, spent  
most of Charlie and Elsinore's visit sitting patiently but  
obsessively outside the bedroom door waiting for a chance to get at  
the cat (who was outside most of the time), so she was too busy to  
spend much time with the pack.

Jennifer said that Elsinore has adopted some of the behaviors of her  
late basset, Macy, including planting herself in the middle of the  
action and waiting until someone accidentally bumps her so she can  
snarl at them, just like Macy used to. But while she's snarling and  
snapping, her tail is wagging. It's as if she's playing her own  
little game in the middle of the game the others are playing. It's  
made Jennifer wonder if some of what Macy did wasn't idiosyncratic to  
Macy but rather a behavior that pops up when a hound hits a certain  
age. Macy was about six when she discovered the satisfaction of being  
a deliberate snarky road bump in the play of others.

Jennifer picked me up from the airport on Tuesday night and brought  
Elsinore and Charlie along so she could take all three of us home.  
After a brief and rather cool greeting, Charlie chose to sit and look  
out the back window for the ride home. Elsinore on the other hand  
couldn't get close enough to me, she was so happy to see me. She  
nudged me for pats the whole way home. When we got in the house,  
Charlie continued to ignore me while Elsinore continued to go to the  
other extreme.

Perhaps Charlie's lack of interest in me was encouraged by the foul  
odor that greeted us when we entered the house. As I unhappily  
discovered, Ken had removed the garbage from the can in the kitchen  
but then forgotten to take the bag outside to the garbage can before  
he left on Monday for his three-day continuing education event. I  
burned scented candles all day yesterday to remove the smell of  
garbage, which Charlie found enchanting (the smell of garbage, not  
the candles). But I think he was just mad at me, either for leaving  
him or for making him come home before he was ready.

Today, my second day back home, Charlie decided to forgive me whole  
heartedly. He followed me around like a lost soul this morning until  
I finally sat down and pulled him up onto my lap for a long pre- 
breakfast cuddle. After that, he's been himself again. Which means  
periodically inviting me to play keep-away and "trading post" with  
the magazines Ken persists in leaving on the floor even though he  
knows what will happen. (Ken thinks I need to train young Charlie to  
leave all his stuff alone. I think Ken needs to train himself to pick  
up after himself.)

It's been amusing to see how differently the two hounds handle my  
absences. Charlie has decided that withdrawing his affection is  
appropriate punishment for me, while Elsinore would crawl into my  
skin if she could. And by tomorrow, they'll both have forgotten I was  
ever away. I suspect that by tomorrow I'll also feel as if my holiday  
happened a long time ago. Which is too bad, because it was a fun one.

Elizabeth