My dog Honey has it bad. She’s in love with an older dog.
But I’m sorry to say that Honey’s love is unrequited. And I don’t know how to help her.
The Object Of Honey’s Affections
Riley is a studly golden retriever who lives one house over from our back neighbors. Until the trees and shrubs get all their leaves, we can see him from the back of our house.
Honey will stand on the back porch on a warm day and look for him.
Occasionally she’ll catch sight of his swishy golden tail as he comes out for a potty break. And she’ll let out a hopeful bark.
“Woof” – Notice me, I’m right here. “Woof” – Just look up. I love you so much.
But Riley never looks up. And if he notices another dog, it’s always the barky pittie who lives on the other side of his back fence.
We think it’s very rude of Riley not to notice Honey. Especially since he toyed with her affection when she was a wee pup.
Honey Meets Riley
Riley’s people were nice enough to help us socialize Honey by bringing Riley over to play with our young puppy.
Honey wasn’t sure about this big golden she didn’t know at first. But within a few moments, they were playing like old friends.
Riley’s people are busy and we don’t see him a lot any more—except across the yards. But Honey has never forgotten.
Honey The Flirt
Last night, Riley’s people had him out for a walk.
Riley came running down the sidewalk behind our next door neighbor’s house to bark and Honey and she went running to greet him.
They nuzzled through the fence and Honey did her happy dance.
When Riley’s person caught up with him, we chatted for a few minutes.
Riley went sniffing around the neighbor’s compost, checked to see if other dogs were walking by. But Honey did her sexiest dance.
She ran in circles. She stopped briefly to play bow. She barked once or twice. Then she ran figure eights, always looking in Riley’s direction to see if he had noticed her.
When it became obvious he wasn’t interested, Honey sat on the porch steps and looked wistfully at her love interest through the fence.
When He Doesn’t Love You Back
What do you do when the one you love doesn’t love you back? Or doesn’t love you as much as you love him?
I feel terrible that I can’t offer Honey advice. I’ve never loved someone who didn’t love me. I’ve never even had a bad break up.
I have dated guys for whom it was quickly and mutually obvious that we had absolutely no chemistry at all. But that doesn’t help Honey.
Heck, even if I knew what to say to her, she wouldn’t understand it anyway.
Maybe some day Honey will meet the dog of her dreams.
But as long as we live here, Honey will always have Riley, ignoring her from over the fence and haunting her dreams.
Your Turn: Has your dog found his or her true love? Has your dog ever been rejected by someone they loved? What did you do?
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Psst Honey. Try play hard to get. I never told you, ok?
When we lived in the city, there was a female Golden next door. She’d come to the chain-link fence and bark and press her backside up against it. But as soon as our Saint Bernard went over to see her, she’d move away and ignore him. He never learned, it worked every time.
Our dog Sally has been the only one of our dogs to have the BIG LOVE…I wrote about it for dogster (http://slimdoggy.com/sally-rudy-dogster-com/)…it was big and full of PDA and totally requited in a big way. Poor Honey, maybe she’ll find a bad boy pirate on your sailing trip to sweep her off her feet.
Awwww, poor Honey. Maybe she will meet some hot, exotic dog on your travels. Then she will forget all about the cold shoulder she gets from Riley.
Before we had Jimmy, Wilson had become “close” with a little female sheltie mix in the court across the street from ours. He really loved that dog. We would just drop him off for a bit in their backyard and come back later. The two would play tag for a bit and then just sit together. Sadly for Wilson, the dog’s owners got transferred out of state. I am sure he missed her a lot. To add insult to injury, I got Jimmy, not a female and also a bully. I feel guilty about that sometimes.
Honey – don’t fret the locals – you’ll meet plenty of exotic gents in the months to come!
Aw, poor Honey! Maybe she’ll forget about Riley once you’ve all been living on the boat for a while.