Codependence

My poor dumb Basset hound has clearly made the transition to relying on his new buddy Phoebe, the way he used to rely on his sister Lucy.  Which is great!  Mostly...

Now Simon and Phoebe sleep together and romp together much like Simon and Lucy used to.  I'm glad he has a buddy during the day when we're gone, and his anxiety levels are as low as they can ever be, for a supremely neurotic dog.  (Sorry about the poor quality of the pics, folks - these are just from my phone.)

Typical evening on the couch in our house:

Or on the futon in the attic:



They get into trouble together:


Are always underfoot together:


And this is what we tend to find a few minutes after we've gotten out of bed in the morning:


On the whole, I am vastly relieved that our having chosen Phoebe worked so well for our sweet nutty Basset hound, who cannot even begin to function as an only dog.

But Simon is getting old - I think he's 7 now - and he has classic Basset hound back problems that prevent him from romping as hard as he used to.  And that leaves us with a pent up hyperactive 2 year old Phoebe on our hands, which frankly isn't pretty.  We have actually been known to pay one of my husband's marathon runner colleagues to come and take her for 8 mile runs, because my pathetic 3 mile jogs don't even begin to take the edge off of her energy.  In short, she drives us NUTS.

Recently, however, we have discovered a new playmate for Phoebe in our next door neighbor's hound mix puppy, Boone.  We puppy sat for Boone on New Year's Eve and discovered he's cute and awful, as all puppies are.



He's just as hyper as Phoebe, and they adore each other.  The two of them can WWE wrestle for HOURS on end.


We have now begun taking Phoebe next door to our neighbor's fenced yard for lengthy play sessions.  After a good romp and wrestle, both we and our neighbors appreciate a little quiet time while our hyper dogs snooze.

But here's the problem.  When we take Phoebe next door to play with Boone and burn off some energy, Simon has to stay home so he doesn't get injured.  And while Phoebe has a GREAT time, poor Simon is pathetic about it.  This is what Simon does the whole time his Phoebe is gone:

Sigh.  I feel guilty every time he does it.  I guess there's only so much we can fix in our poor codependent dog.