Bizzaro Zeldie

We went to Erin's house for Thanksgiving this year. We were very excited that Zeldie would get the chance to spend three whole days with four other dogs including one Irish Terrier that is only a week older than her. I was a bit nervous about how she would behave so we spent a couple of weeks beforehand focusing intensely on "off" (the counters). But as it turned out, the other dogs proved to be quite a distraction for her, more so than what was going on in the kitchen or with the people for most of the time.

We did come to realize though, that Zeldie has absolutely no self-regulation. On Thursday she spent the entire day playing with Sam and long after all of the other dogs had fallen asleep on the floor, she was still wandering around seemingly not sure what to do with herself until she finally fell, a full 12 hours after we had let her out of her crate that morning, over exhausted on the floor.

We were also completely amused that Zeldie seemed reluctant to do her business in the backyard. This was perhaps the part of the trip that David and I were looking forward to the most, waking up and letting her out into the big fenced in backyard in the morning. No trudging around in the cold and near dark with a poop bag in hand. However, as it turned out, Zeldie is definitely a city dog. On a leash is how she learned to potty and on a leash is how she prefers to potty. It seems to her the backyard was an extension of the house and unless we left her out there for hours on end playing with the other dogs, she wouldn't potty and she never once pooped back there.

I think the thing that was most incredible was watching Zeldie and Bailey together. It seemed as different as they were in stature and looks, they had a lot of the same habits. I noticed how they both scratched their nose the same way with their long back leg which I have never seen another dog do in my life. They both loved to give kisses the same way too. David kept saying it was "Bizzaro Zeldie" like that episode of Seinfeld. In fact they were so much alike that we had a hard time convincing PJ at one point that there were actually two of them there until we showed him the two dogs together. One thing they did do very differently lay down to take a nap. Bailey circled her spot and then laid down tucking herself into a neat little Bailey ball. Zeldie, on the other hand, fell over in her spot sprawled on her back limbs askew and snout thrown back. She's is a wonder.

Above you'll find some video of Bailey and Zeldie together so that you can see if you can tell them apart. At times, it was difficult for us too.