Josephine and Napoleon
No, I'm not talking about the French emperor and his mistress. I'm talking about our long time pal, our dog Napoleon and his "sister." We brought Josephine home when she was a pup and even though Napoleon was an Alpha male, she treated him as if he was her mother. They were totally attached to each other. She followed him everywhere and imitated him. After our pal Napoleon died last Sunday Josie has been lost. She searches for him and waits by the door for him. She whines and is clearly unhappy as well as confused.
When I would come home from work I would make a big thing out of giving them both a treat. I would toss two treats and they would run as fast as they could to get them and eat them. Today I decided to give Josie a treat and tossed it for her to chase after it full speed as she always did. Instead of running after it, she waited, hesitated for some time and then walked over to get the treat. But, instead of eating it, she carried it in her mouth to the little bed Napoleon always used and dropped dropped the treat inside. She laid down outside the bed, put one paw on the side of the bed and began to whine. After a short time she picked the treat up again and carried it upstairs to the window where she could see out towards the driveway and dropped it at her feet. Then she sat there for a long time staring out the window looking for her friend. I guess she was saving the treat for him.
I felt just awful for her and about the loss of our pal Napoleon. Losing a dog you loved and was your constant companion for fifteen years is really hard on everyone involved.