There's no new sheriff in town.

Thank you all for the most excellent, kind words about Lady Doodle. They have made a difference as we try to figure out our new normal.

The death of the canine alpha dog has lead to some crazy times as Big Doodle, Foxie Doxie, and Lil' Frankfurter all jockey for position. Also, they don't know what the hell they're doing.

So, in a normal day, this means that the backdoor is a revolving door. They want out! They want in! They must be next to me at all times! They want nothing to do with me and are plotting my demise!

It also means that Big Doodle really, really doesn't want to be alone. He misses his litter mate. When I take him for walks, he doesn't know where to walk or how fast to walk. He swerves around, sometimes walking fast, other times completely stopping in the middle of an intersection.

I don't know what the eff is going on.

When I leave the house without him, he feels lonely and abandoned. The only thing that tempers this is if I leave the dachshunds out of their kennels, so all 3 dogs can chill peaceably together.

Except sometimes they don't chill peaceably.

Friday, I was gone for exactly an hour. When I came home, I found the bathroom trashcan overturned, and a path of bathroom trashcan debris leading from the bathroom into the bedroom.

Yay!

The path lead to the big dog bed. Evidently, Foxie Doxie, he of the inexplicable love of all things bathroom trash, could not resist Lady Time Bathroom Trash. So, he lounged on Big Doodle's big ol' bed, dining on used tampons and kleenexes. He left a huge pile of tiny little paper product pieces.

Yeah, I like to eat ladyproducts. What?

Oh, and he peed on the bed to claim it as his own.

Yay!

It's like the freakin' wild west around here. And strangely, me stomping around bellowing, "I AM THE ALPHA" doesn't seem to have much of an impact.

In Doggie Heaven, laughing at all this shit.

We all miss our girl.