Weird... but not?

So I've mentioned a few times how our neighbors invite Zoey (one of our dogs) over to their house for "playdates." She's now officially on a "sleepover" HAHA! How is that for hilarious.

Let me back up.... we got Zoey as a puppy- about 6 weeks old. Too young, yes, but she was being raised by her mama dog in a barn away from people so we figured it'd be better for her to be socialized and thus, took her. Immediately we noticed she had strong guarding/territorial instincts. At 6 weeks old she snarled ferociously at me when I took a bone away from her. Like Ramsey, we had her in puppy training classes to socialize her. She learned to respect Ryan and I and we established our ranks in the pack.

Now that we have kids, Zoey's "guarding" insticts really scare me. She has never ever bitten anyone or even nipped, but she will growl if there is food nearby and someone she doesn't see as "higher on the pecking order" as her walks by her. And when it comes to my kids (and in general, the way most dogs view kids)... she doesn't see them as "above" her... they're on the same level. So, she has growled at Porter many times. Sometimes unnecessarily and others he's deserved it. He's a brat with the dogs, despite our constant drilling and reprimanding him to be nice and not hit and not yell and not step on or kick the dogs.

When we moved in, our neighbors gushed over the girls (dogs, that is). They used to have a rottie and had to have her put to sleep as she had cancer. L, the wife, began wishing they had another dog to accompany Gracie, their German Shepherd. I offhandedly mentioned that we were looking for a home for Zoey as she wasn't fitting in well with the kids. L and G's kids are grown (our age) and moved out so they don't have little ones in their home 24/7. Thus began the playdates.

Up until now they haven't mentioned anything else about taking Zoey, but they take her about once a week for playdates. For Zoey's sake I'm glad they do as she gets to run and play and stretch. Over here she is confined to our mudroom until the kids go to bed and then she's allowed in the house. I feel bad for her, but not bad enough to possibly risk one of my kids getting bitten. Not that I think she's some attack dog, but I just don't trust dogs- any dog- in general with kids. That combination makes me so nervous. Even when we had gentle old Samson, a lab mix... I never left him alone with Porter.

Lately, Ramsey and Zoey have been having issues, grumbling at eachother, barking at eachother, having "standoffs" in the house. They got into a huge fight the other morning and Linda ran out to scream at them and try to get Ramsey off of Zoey. I had emailed her later in teh day to let her know Zoey was fine and no one was hurt and I mentioned that we're still looking for a good home for Zoey and if they knew of anyone to let us know. She said she was working on G and trying to get him to agree to take Zoey. They have taken her the last couple days for playdates and tonight she called and asked if Zoey could just stay over and see how it goes.

I'm excited that maybe they'll take her, give her a home adn love on her like she deserves. But then I'm thinking... will that be totally awkward that "our" dog is living next door? HAHA! I mean, I guess its best for Zoey and really, best for us too. But kind of weird, don't you think?

I also was thinking it'd save us from fencing in the yard too. Zoey runs off but Ramsey will stay in the yard. So for now we only let the dogs out to run in this small fenced in "kennel" type area off our garage. Ramsey we occasionally let out to run in the back yard but Zoey will run off. I thought this spring we would be having to fence in the yard to give the dogs (more less Zoey) room to roam/run, but if we only have Ramsey we won't have to do that. And the neighbors have a huge fenced in back yard for her to run!

Wow.... a novel all about our dog and neighbor situation. How funny... Can you tell I'm having a terribly EXCITING Friday evening?