Owen, Dorothy, Plum, Posy

Owen adores all our pets, but these days his adoration can be a bit rough – more so than when he was a baby or young toddler.  He loves to call all our pets “A Good Girl!”, said in a weird crooning voice that he copies from us, and Plum, too, is A Good Girl – poor alpha-male Plum.  All of our pets are very good with him – sometimes too good in the face of his rough love, so we are making sure we keep an eye on all the pet lovin’ that occurs.

Owen loves to brush Posy with me, and Posy loves that too, although I have to work to get Owen not to brush Posy’s face.

Plum likes Owen the best, and will often walk up to him and claim him with a rubbing, brushing against a leg, turning around and brushing against the other leg.  Plum will also swipe Owen if need be, but generally only if he is very provoked.  Owen doesn’t hold a grudge:  he’ll just talk for a while about how Plum was feeling grumpy.

We are also trying to watch Owen and Dorothy’s interactions more, because he tends to touch her face.  And sometimes his touch tends to be more of a bonk.  The other day Owen and I took Dorothy for a walk, with Owen holding the end of the leash and me with a firm grasp on the middle.  This was a first for Owen, since because of her knee issues, Dorothy hadn’t been allowed to go on a walk in a long time.  We passed a lot of people going down our street, and Owen told everyone proudly, “We’re walking our dog!”  Then Dorothy pooped, and after I picked it up, we had the following exchange:

Owen:  That poop is dee-gustin!

Me:  Well, it’s not so bad.

Owen:  It’s dee-gustin!

Me:  Well, it’s okay – everybody poops.

Owen:  Everybody poops on the street!

Me: --

Owen and his Animals

When Owen arrived in our household, there were already five of us living here:  me, Sean, Dorothy, Plum and Posy.  Whereas his appearance was a little traumatic for the pets (well, except that we think it took Posy about four months before she noticed he was there), Owen’s landscape has always included beasties lying about.  And he is quite good (so far) with all the animals, especially since he is not very physical with them in general.

He is fond of Dorothy and will introduce her to us and whoever else might come to our house.  When we are away from home running errands, he will say that he wants to go home to Dorothy.  And when they are outside together, he will bring her sticks (which is good, since Dorothy will take them from him regardless).

I’d say of all three pets, Plum is the one who likes Owen the best.  Dorothy knows she has to behave well towards Owen, but she is jealous of him and will often sit on the couch and cry when we play with him (Oh! The long suffering bulldogge!).  So her feeling towards him is more tolerance and a grudging acknowledgement that she had better be nice to Dad’s young.  Plum, on the other hand, is interested in Owen – no doubt it is probably more that he is willing to have another lesser being in his, the alpha male’s, household, but this manifests itself in affectionate leg rubbing while Owen is watching TV and a general interest in what Owen is doing.  Plum will talk to Owen too, and meow at him in a friendly way.  This is all good, since Plum’s tendency to urinate outside the box has not put him in his father’s good graces, to put it mildly.  Being nice to Owen seems the least he can do.

And then there’s Posy.  Posy’s reaction to Owen is generally to hightail it in the opposite direction.  Quickly!  Owen is solicitous of her – or rather, he became so once he heard me calling her Posita.  His version of “Posita” is po-di-TAH, and he likes to shout this at high decibels.  He’ll call po-di-TAH when it is time for her dinner, or when he is just wondering where she is.  Needless to say, she does not come running.

The name’s Posy.

But you don’t call me anything at all, little boy.