Two Peas In A Pod

You may recall that a few months back we adopted a six-year-old hound mix named Pete. You can find his back story here and here. We are now four months past official adoption, and he and our first dog, Maggie, could not behave any more like human siblings. It is unreal (and I am hoping good experience for kids!). Their personalities are so different. Maggie is very independent, while Pete loves to be around (on top of, next to, etc.) people at all times.

Maggie is a typical bossy little sister, barking at Pete any time she perceives us to be correcting him. Most of the time it is funny, but when she decides to bark at him and herd him from one room to another at bedtime, it can be a little much. She will still occasionally try to herd him for no reason, biting and tugging on his ears and face, but by this point, Pete is over being polite and has been known, on more than one occasion, to swat her on the head.

While they have their moments of sibling rivalry, more often than not you will find them playing “monkey see; monkey do”. One afternoon I was working from home, and they were laying on opposite ends of the couch in the sun room. Every few minutes they would swap sides of the couch. Most evenings, Pete sleeps on his bed on the floor, and Maggie lies on the love seat just above him. Close, but not too close.

Despite the heat we have been experiencing, those fools will spend all day outside, many times just eating grass (we now have actual grass – it no longer looks as bad as the picture!). At night they will go outside and retreat to the far back corner of the yard behind the garage where we can’t see them. We have yet to figure out what they are doing, but they will be back there for over an hour. Sometimes they come in huffing and puffing and all out of breath. Most times we have to go out and call them in. I’m sure it has something to do with a possum or raccoon, and I dread the day that we find something dead back there.

A couple of weeks ago my husband told me they were working in tandem to trap a squirrel on the fence. Pete stood on deck blocked that route while Maggie kept closing in on it along the fence line. I can imagine what would have happened had they fully executed their plan before my husband went out to stop them.

We certainly had our reservations about how these two would get along, even once we’d made the decision to keep Pete. They can certainly be exhausting, and they sometimes get into real fights, but overall I think Maggie is happy to have a friend, and Pete seems to love living here. I’ve never regretted our decision for a second.