Thrown Over for a Younger Model

Poor Meadow. She had to experience what many of us have had to endure at one time or another in our lives: being rejected for a younger model.

The girls and I spent several days in the Seattle area recently, and had the chance to run trails at Cougar and Tiger Mountains with friends. On one such run, our group included five people and four dogs: me and the girls; Mike and his three year old Samoyed Alice; Michael (dogless); Jim (also dogless), and Mark with his four year old Vizsla Bruce.

I've always referred to Bruce as Meadow's boy toy. When Bruce was a pup and just learning to run trails, he and Mark would join us, and Meadow was entranced. As Mark says, "Bruce is just Bruce. Dumb and happy. Every day he wakes up and he's happy to be Bruce." It doesn't hurt that he's also athletic, having run as far as 50 miles with Mark, and sleekly handsome.

Meadow loves Bruce. Sure, he could get annoying in his enthusiasm to dash and play, but Meadow bided her time, knowing he would grow up and calm down a bit. Every time she saw him, she flirted shamelessly. Maia was above it all.

Since moving to Idaho nearly two years ago, Bruce encounters have been sparse, yet Meadow is always thrilled to see him.

Two days before seeing Bruce at the trail run, I introduced Meadow to a group of puppies going through obedience classes where we stay when visiting Seattle. (For great dog training, contact my friend Robin at www.caninebcenter.com - Canine Behavior Center.) One of the students was a four month old Vizsla named Libby. When Meadow spied her, she immediately went into Bruce flirtation mode until she got close enough to realize that Libby came with girl parts rather than the boy parts she was anticipating. This was a clear lesson for me, yet again, that dogs recognize breeds, especially those with which they've had very good, or very bad, encounters.

The day of our trail run, I arrived at the Tiger Mountain trail head first. When Mark and Bruce arrived, the girls were still in my car and became very excited at the sight of Bruce. I could hear Meadow's quiet whimpers of excitement, something she rarely vocalizes. Then Mike and Alice arrived. Mike is actually a former boyfriend and the girls ADORE him. When he started running with his current girlfriend's Samoyed, Alice, and we would bump into them out on a trail, the girls would get over-the-top excited to see Mike; they accepted Alice but didn't rave over her. Alice is gorgeous, very friendly, and an excellent trail dog. I've been tempted to steal her. We hadn't seen Mike and Alice in nearly a year. We hadn't seen Bruce since he and Mark visited us briefly at dog camp last September. Pandemonium reigned as the girls whined and pranced and begged to be let out to say hello. It was a happy and chaotic scene. After the girls got their Mike fix (for he comes first in this love-fest hierarchy), Meadow started flirting with Bruce and all was well in her world.

Michael and Jim arrived, all the hellos were accomplished, and we started our three hour run. Before long, I noticed that Meadow seemed a little subdued, hanging in the back with the other slowpokes (me). Then I realized the problem: Alice was all over Bruce. And Bruce was flirting back! Poor Meadow had been thrown over for the younger - and blond - dog, and she was hurting. I knew her pain. Meadow soon turns six, so she and I are about the same age - early middle age, for lack of a more glamorous description - and the men in our lives seem to prefer the younger models. There's nothing worse than having it thrown in your face, though, so I really sympathized with Meadow. My soft whispers that Bruce wasn't smart enough for her anyway didn't seem to improve her mood.

I didn't have a camera with me that day - wish I had - so no photos of the two insensitive pooches who brought Meadow such emotional grief. But as soon as we arrived back in Idaho, Meadow gathered up the one thing that unfailingly gives her comfort: her teddy bear.

Time for all of us to find new boy toys.