You all are probably sick of my Chloe posts already… but I can’t help myself! (Just wait until I’m a mother! Oh boy.) As she’s growing up (almost 6 months old now) her own little personality is starting to shine through and it cracks James and I up every. single. day. 🙂
It is so interesting to us how different she is from Phoenix. Phoenix was the least dog-like dog I’ve ever encountered. We always said she was more human than dog. She was crazy intuitive of how we were feeling and rarely did any dog-like things. (So the one time she actually ‘buried’ her bone I was totally shocked… she was acting like a dog!) She was super smart, loyal, loving, patient, and a total sweetheart, but at the same time was afraid of almost everything… (the iron, my computer keyboard, pumpkins, and thunder… just to name a few). She would hide in the bathroom whenever she was uncomfortable, and looked at us like we’d lost our minds when we tried to get her to come out.
Somehow though, Chloe is the total opposite. As James and I like to say – she is ALL DOG. She barks/attacks her own reflection. She is nuts about squirrels. She buries her bone all over the house and is super frantic about it. She chases her tail. She bullies any dog she gets to play with. And for all the fear Phoenix had – Chloe is totally on the other end of the spectrum and is absolutely fearless almost to a fault. (She’s teaching me a bit about being brave and not taking life too seriously though – and that’s a very good thing!) In the middle of all her questionable behavior, she occasionally amazes us with how smart she actually is. She recognizes James’ ring tone on my phone and runs to the window to see if he’s home whenever he calls. She wakes up from sound sleep on the couch (in the other room) and runs to the window just as I am driving down the street looking for parking out front. She comforted me when I had a rough night and stood guard at the end of the bed while I shed a few tears.
On a daily basis James and I find ourselves falling more and more for this little pup (who actually isn’t so little anymore after just 2.5 months)! It seems God sent us exactly the puppy we needed to help us cope and move on from the loss of our sweet Phoenix. Because she is so different – I don’t find myself comparing them in any negative way. I marvel at their differences, but I don’t ever wish Chloe was Phoenix. We are finding that she is very much what J and I needed at this time, and we are thankful every day that she came into our lives (even when she is driving us totally nuts)! 🙂
(Case in point on the bullying… This is a picture of her dragging around her older & bigger cousin, India, by her leash. The second she got too far away Chloe would jerk her leash and yank her back to her. Seriously. Don’t worry though – we only let it go on long enough to take this photo. :))
And to highlight their differences even more – here is Chloe’s take on “bath time.” Whereas Phoenix shuddered at the word “bath” and looked like she could break into tears while in the tub… Chloe feels differently about it apparently! 🙂
What a nut! haha!
