attached at the hip

18Mar10

Gracie and Talulah, attached at the hip.

“It’s a good thing I love you!”

That was the subject line of an e-mail my Mom sent me the morning after I dropped Gracie off at my parent’s house.

So maybe it wasn’t the best idea to drop the dog off at 11 p.m. on a school night (my mom and stepfather are teachers) before Courtney and I went to the mountains for the weekend. Especially when Gracie and Talulah needed time to catch up.

Talulah is my parent’s dog. She’s a barrel on four legs, just shorter than Gracie but twice as wide. She’s less than a year old and some kind of crazy hound mix. And she’s Gracie’s best friend.

The two first met when I brought Gracie home over Christmas. They immediately took to each other and spent the next several hours running around together. They walked side-by-side like they were literally attached at the hip. When Gracie finally decided to lay down, Talulah played watchdog. If Gracie moved or even breathed hard, Talulah was on her feet and running to her BFF to make sure everything was OK.

I can’t help but think that Gracie is the bully in the relationship, though. If Talulah has a bone, Gracie takes it. And Talulah does nothing. Talulah has a toy, Gracie takes it and Talulah does nothing. Talulah is kind of a push over.

But somehow their relationship still works. They spend hours sprinting back and forth upstairs, running from my sister’s room, jumping on my parents’ bed, turning, and going back to the other room. After a few minutes of this, my parent’s mattress is halfway off the box spring.

Occasionally you’ll hear yelps or growls, but the tails keep wagging. It’s all in good fun.

But occasionally Gracie gets tired of playing. Talulah doesn’t take that well.

During the weekend Gracie spent with my parents, she would spend a lot of time laying right at the window sill in my parents room. There was just enough room for Gracie to lay up there and no room for Talulah.

When Talulah wanted to play, she’d come and get Gracie. Since she couldn’t jump up to the window with Gracie, she did the next best thing: annoy the crap out of her until she would get down. She’d stand on her back paws, put her left paw on Gracie’s side and used the other one to swat her in the face repeatedly.

At first, Gracie would ignore it. Then, finally, she would jump on top of her, body slamming Talulah. And they were off.

Like I said, Talulah is just a couple inches shorter than Gracie. Talulah uses it to her advantage. She’ll walk up behind Gracie, duck her head and slide under Gracie’s stomach. Then she will straighten up, lifting Gracie’s back legs off the ground. Gracie goes crazy trying to get down, but as soon as she does Talulah does it again.

But again, it’s all in fun. They always want to be around each other and love to play. And Gracie’s always a little sad when we leave.

But my family probably isn’t. Gracie likes to snuggle and so does Talulah. That’s almost 100 pounds of dog sharing a bed with my parents. They even slept with my sister one night on her twin bed.

Seeing the two together makes me think that I should get another dog for Gracie to play with.

Then I come to my senses. I live in a one-bedroom apartment, and my bed is only so big.

I need my beauty sleep.

Does your dog have a best buddy, or do you have two dogs that are always playing? I’d love to hear your dog stories, too. Put them in the comments! The best stories could be featured in a guest post!

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Next week: “the great hou-doggie.”

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