The Adventures of Mauve and Charlotte

Mauve hasn't gotten a lot of blog love here recently, but rest assured, she is still the same ol mess of a doggy. She still spends her days eating all things both edible and inedible, napping, scratching and shedding all over the house. She hasn't seemed to catch on to the whole pregnancy thing yet, or if she has, she's pretty nonchalant about the whole thing. 

Well this past weekend, we opened our house up to another doggy named Charlotte while her people went out of town for a few days. Here's little Charlotte:

Hi Charlotte!

Seeing that Mauve is resting at a solid 72 pounds these days and I'm guessing Charlotte wouldn't even break the 20 pound mark on the scale, she is dwarfed by Mauve (you can see Mauve in the left corner of the picture). But thankfully, they've gotten along really well this weekend. She's a good bit quicker than Mauve and a little on the scrappy side, so their playtime isn't as one-sided as you might think. (But she's certainly been knocked over more than a few times by her 3.5x bigger friend)

It's been pretty hilarious watching them play together. Charlotte is usually the instigator, unless it's tug-of-war time, which just so happens to be Mauve's play of choice. She isn't really living up to her Labrador Retriever name, because she'd much rather watch a ball fly across the room than run after it and bring it back. But tug-of-war gets her every time. And it was nice to have someone else be on the other end of the rope besides Jordan or myself.  When Mauve was in a frisky mood (there have been a few instances where I've seen her give Charlotte the "leave me alone" look), she'll grab onto one end of her rope toy and lay the other end in front of Charlotte to see if she is up for a game or two. Then she proceeds to pull Charlotte all over the living room. Even though Charlotte puts up a good fight, there's no real "war," but she's just as content to have someone on the other end doing a little tugging against her.

Here's a funny little iPhone video that I shot of them playing tug-of-war together yesterday (The one doing all the heavy breathing is Mauve - she really gets into it.):

They've kept each other pretty well entertained the last few days and if they're not playing together, they're both passed out on the floor. Kind of like they are right now.

Jordan and I have learned a few things this weekend from our time with both Mauve AND Charlotte. First, I don't think we're a 2 dog kinda household. It's been fun having some extra entertainment around the house, but I think we're pretty content with little Mauve. And secondly, we just love our little Mauvey. Having Charlotte in a new place with new people and another dog was an adjustment for her, plus she's used to different rules and a different schedule. All the minor snafus that arise with all these new variables just made us so thankful for our own sweet Mauvey....

Well, as long as she's not eating out of the trash can and barfing on the rug.