Monday, February 8, 2010

Jealousy

Theo can get very jealous. Sometimes he can be kind of a brat about it. But mostly he's just hopelessly adorable. Unfortunately for Husband, Theo's jealousy never fails to flare up whenever we give each other affection, or really any kind of hands-on attention. Get your mind out of the gutter people! He can be fast asleep upstairs, but if he gets an inkling that Husband is giving me a hug in the kitchen, he comes running downstairs, toy in tow. Because obviously if I have time to give Husband my full attention, I have time to throw a toy for Theo. That's how his adorably puppy mind works, and really, it makes sense to me!

The latest occurance of his jealousy was yesterday. Husband had a rather exhausting weekend that involved trying to lift an entire 32" CRT television by himself because his "buff" wife just isn't as buff as we hoped she would be. Anyway, I was trying to massage the huge knots out of his shoulders when Theo jumped up next to me on the couch and gave me the most hilarious indignant Corgi face you've ever seen. You know the one I mean. Ears up, eyes wide and expectant, practically shaking from the concentration of trying to communicate telepathically with you. I heard the message loud and clear. "Mommy, how dare you give physical attention to Daddy when you could be giving attention to me!" A few seconds later he jumped off the couch and a few seconds after that a toy was at my feet, sitting next to an expectant puppy. Oh, if only I had had my camera! It was classic!

What do you do when you're torn between giving attention to your husband and your puppy? It's not a fair place to put a woman in, that's for sure.




You know who else is a jealous pup? This guy:
(See what I did there? That's called a segue people.)


This would be Rex, or Reindeer Rex to be specific. And his tag is showing! How embarrassing! Just pretend you don't see it, will you? Anyway, I think I mentioned it, but when we were staying on Rex's turf over Christmas, it was pretty much on par of what we experienced their last visit. Namely, Theo strutting around like he owned the place, and Rex biding his time and being more methodical on the best things to do to really piss Theo off, while maintaining his exterior cool. I gotta say, that's one sneaky dog.

Mostly he just stole Theo's toys a lot. Only the ones Theo wanted to play fetch with, and only after I had thrown it for Theo. And he wouldn't want to play fetch too. He would just steal the toy and go sit on it for awhile. And Theo's ears would fall and he would go pout in the corner. It was so sad, but kind of deserved after Theo did things like growling every time Rex came near me. One morning I made the mistake of letting Theo out of his crate before Rex. Rex was so excited to be let out, he kept charging the door. Even though Theo totally does the same thing, he viewed Rex's actions as a hostile attack against me, so when I finally got the door open, Theo ran in and tried to take a swipe at Rex. Ok, no swiping was involved, but lots of ferocious growling and teeth baring was. Eep! No dogs were hurt in the making of this Christmas. Theo is all talk, and Rex is all mellowness, thank goodness! But man! Juggling those two was like juggling warring toddlers. Seriously!

Also, Theo's arrival prompted nothing but polite behavior from Rex...except the part where he marked his own house! Yup! We were all just hanging out, and Rex ever so calmly walked over to the couch, sniffed it, and peed! I was just glad it wasn't Theo, which sounds terrible, but really Theo knows better than to mark inside, and I would have been mortified. Thankfully it was just that one incident.
I think my favorite, ok not favorite, but most entertaining bout between the two troublemakers was when I was laying on the couch reading. Theo jumped up and fell asleep in the crook of my legs, with his head on my knees, as he tends to do once every blue moon. Rex slowly approached, looking for some love and attention from me (I love him so!), I looked at Theo, knowing he would never allow it. Sure enough, while Theo was totally silent, I could see his nose wrinkling where he was baring his teeth to poor Rex, who took the hint and walked away.

I think both of them deserved timeout time in the reindeer antlers, don't you?

8 comments:

betty said...

LOL with Theo being jealous about the attention between you and hubby; Koda does the same thing; he does a little growl and snarl if you dare to touch someone else other than him

betty

~Kaly said...

So...Toby LOVES my husband LOL... to the point that when I will let him out of his crate in the morning, hoping for warm kisses and maybe a belly to rub; he jets right through my legs to nuzzle my hubby's feet... And when we're snuggled up on the couch watching a movie, Toby is more than content laying on my hubby's lap, ignoring me completely. Little stinker. :P

Kelly said...

haha, aww, luckily I do not have a problem w/Gibson being jealous of physical attention between my husband and I (although they do have some sort of competition thing going on.. heh).. but Gibson does get very jealous/crazy around other dogs. At first it's sweet and happy playtime, but when he gets tired.. LOOK OUT! Teeth are bared and he wants nothing to do w/the other dog (but of course he won't stop playing until the other one does..). Fun times ;)

Laurie said...

Sadie gets jealous, too! She squeezed in between my mom and I when I gave her a hug, and she hates if I pet or even TALK to another animal haha. She's a brat. I haven't been involved with anyone since I got Sadie though, so I do worry how she will be when that actually happens!! Good luck :)

JuLo said...

Betty, it's hard to disapprove when all they want is your love and attention, right? Hehe.

Kaly, I am definitely glad Theo loves me and it's not the other way around. After all, I'm the main care giver, and Husband is the occasional backup! It would hardly be fair!

Kelly, I loved your post about Gibson and your hubby. :) Theo gets grumpy around other dogs too, though he doesn't have that problem about playing. He doesn't usually play in the first place, and when he does, it lasts all of 10 seconds because he quits. lol!

Laurie, you just can't give in to her! We just let Theo bark and whine when we hug. Ok, actually he usually sounds so hilarious that we start mocking him and laughing. But still, no pets for the brat! Hehe.

Katie said...

Haha. That sounds like my Whiskey too. Everytime I go to hug my boyfriends she starts jumping around, barking (extremely loud) and if we are standing, she jumps and starts to nip one of us (usually me). I call her an "attention hog"

Ivy@PaperElixir said...

That's too funny, these 2! I'm kinda glad that Bryson doesn't seem to have much jealousy issue, otherwise we'd be in trouble with little Miss Eva!

Annie Nguyen said...

Classic Corgi!!

(BTW, my corgi's name is Toby as well!)

The difference though, is that the little monster prefers DADDY over MOMMY. Even though he's been with mommy for a whole year longer than he's been with daddy that little shit! lol.

He makes those indignant little squeaks whenever I'm getting attention lavished on me and of course, yes, throws the toy RIGHT in front of us.

Monsters! All of them! And I can't wait for another :)