Monday Morning Blues (POUTING)

Brutus really workin it :(

 

Well, Brutus once again survived his Monday morning blues, which amounted to twenty-four hours of solid moping and pouting. Don's parents had been at the lake with us for the last week, and Nick, my oldest son had also been here. With all of this great attention and extra belly rubs, Brutus was in seventh heaven. Don showed up on Wednesday for an extra long weekend, so he had his favorite buddy (Dad) around too. Life simply couldn't have been better. Then his other human brother Andrew showed up. Man, this was amazing!

Then BAM, people started leaving! Andrew left first because he had some school work to get done. There were still enough people around that Brutus was able to say "goodbye" and still be fine. Dad left Sunday night. I could already tell Sunday afternoon that Brutus was getting nervous. He can always tell when Don is starting to "pull things together" at the lake, and when Don does this, Brutus starts sticking to him like glue, and looking sad. We were invited over to the neighbors for dinner on Sunday evening, and Brutus wasn't, so that made it even worse. Don walked home from the neighbors, said "goodbye" and got in his truck and left. Brutus was left in the garage on his tie and no one else came home. Not cool in his mind. Grandpa is having a hard time walking distances right now, so we drove home from the neighbors about a half an hour later, and I can honestly say that I thought Brutus was going to get in the car with us before we could even get out. His separation anxiety seems to be getting more and more intense. Nick informed me that when I am gone, Brutus lays by the door with his head on his paws looking sad. That kind of breaks my heart. I always go back to the fact that he was "thrown away", and wonder if he felt that way when he was ditched. I appease myself by knowing that anyone who loves him as much as I do simply couldn't have thrown this boy away, so maybe he didn't have a strong attachment to his previous "stupid horrible abusive" owners.

Monday morning rolled around, and Grandma and Grandpa headed back to Illinois. Now the pouting was turned on in full force. Brutus laid around all day with these big sad eyes. Nick tried to give him a treat, and he practically had to put it in his mouth. That isn't like Brutus at all. This boy is very food motivated. It gets to the point where you just have to ignore him and let him work it out. Nothing is going to make him feel better, and he looks so ridiculous that it makes you want to laugh, and that's just downright mean.

Nick had a flight on Monday afternoon to head back to Ohio, so he started getting packed up to go. I knew that if Brutus didn't come along, I would probably come home to a dog that had died from a broken heart, so I let him ride with to the airport. As luck would have it, we goofed up the time that Nick was supposed to be at the airport with the time that his plane was supposed to leave, and being this is a really little airport in a fairly small town, the people that do the check-in process are also the people that load the plane, so by the time he got there, even though it was still ten minutes before departure time, the plane had already left. They were VERY efficient. He was so bummed, and Brutus was NOT. When Nick got back in the car, obviously very upset, Brutus had kisses for him. On the bright side, Nick was able to schedule a flight out for the next morning, and we had a great evening together. I made a yummy stir fry, we had a cocktail, and laughed a little more about Brutus's behavior.

Today life is better. Brutus once again came with to the airport, and afterward we went through the McDonald's drive through window to get a breakfast sandwich. The girls there love him, and always give him one of those little packages of three sugar cookies that they hand out to kids. The problem?? Brutus gets a little too excited, and his "lipstick" comes out of the package. It's so embarrassing. I really need to learn to start bringing a scarf or something with to throw over it. lol! It sure is an easy way to know that he's happy. It makes me a little more sympathetic for all of those thirteen year old boys out there, which is probably about the age that Brutus is in dog years. Ugh!

During his little pouting adventure yesterday, he did manage to be naughty, so I had to go buy some dirt to fill some holes that he dug trying to go after a chipmunk. At least this time it's on my property. That I can deal with!! Have a happy!