He's adjusting.

While A and I were in Vegas getting hitched, I left my dog, Bo, a 2-year-old papillon, with my mother. She has a dog of similar size and age, and they play splendidly (Bo and her dog, that is). I figured it'd be like sleepaway camp for him for a few days of fun with new friends. I thought he'd enjoy having a big backyard to run through without being attached to a cable like he is here. While there, I knew my mom would go against my orders that he sleep in his kennel at night, so I thought he'd have fun getting to snuggle under the covers with warm legs and feet at night.

These are things I expected. I did not expect my mother to ordain herself the ambassador for Canine Mental Health.

Apparently, in order to prepare Bo for the arrival of his "skin sister" in February, my mother bought him his very own baby doll. Bear in mind, this is the tactic my parents used with me when pregnant with my younger brother. But I'm also, you know, A HUMAN. But anyway, when A and I came to pick Bo up after arriving home from Vegas, you can imagine our surprise to be sent home with a stuffed baby doll that he absolutely refuses to be separated from.

Yes, Bo loves his Baby. It's almost as big as he is, and yet he drags it everywhere with him... by its crotch. (He loves to grab the crotches on his toys. I don't get it. Psychological issues from the fact that I neutered him, perhaps?) So as he drags Baby around the house with him, it gets caught up underneath him, so while strutting through the house he wants up walking all jenky-like trying to walk while stepping over Baby as he carries it.

Baby serves a number of purposes. As with all his toys he loves, he beats the shit out of it. Loves, LOVE to shake it. And fetch. He never tires of bringing Baby to you and letting you throw it, which, as A has expressed, "has amazing flying distance" thanks to the heavy head. I am wondering if I should be concerned that my dog and the father of my child enjoy playing "throw the baby across the room" together.

Also, Bo has decided Baby does not need clothes (he's stripped its clothes off and used them for a whole new set of toys), nor does Baby need hands (they're sitting on the end table as I found him chewing on them after ripping them from Baby's limbs.)

There are so many psychological issues at play here, and I can't even begin to tackle them all. So I'm just presenting the case as it is, for you to contemplate for yourself.