Well, hello there, beautiful strangers...

It has been quite some time since I reached out to fellow city-dwelling dog lovers, I apologize! I was thinking, just to get my feet wet again, that I would describe my walk with Wyatt and his new bud Stinky Winston yesterday - it was quite the fiasco. So, for a little background, you should know that Wyatt and Stinky haven't always been buds. Stinky is my best friend's 6-year-old un-neutered male bulldog. For years, we tried to create an environment in which the two could form a lifelong friendship, but most outings usually ended with Wyatt going all "Cujo" on Stinky, a number of times sinking a canine into his face. Wyatt is just so fearful that he can't get out of his own way to make friends. About a year ago, my BF asked me to take care of Stinky for 10 days while she and her fam went out of town. I decided that enough was enough and I was going to make the boys like each other if it was the last thing I did. I knew that without Alisa around to add extra nervous energy (totally justified nervousness, I admit!) that I might just have a chance to pull off the impossible: create an environment where a fear-aggressive 9-year-old pit bull with bad hips makes nice with a 5-year-old un-neutered bulldog who likes to mount his friends... what, does that sound crazy to you or something?? ;) To make a long story short, when my BF came home 10 days later, she was greeted by the two boys, off leash, running around playing like a couple of kids. It has been wonderful for Wyatt to finally have a friend again after his 2 other life-long companions died. So, yesterday... I took them to a favorite spot where they can run around off-leash. As soon as I let them out of the car, Stinky started hounding Wyatt's rear end, sniffing and licking him. Something he usually does when they first greet, but normally I tell him to knock it off and that's the end of it. Not yesterday. Wyatt would pull a 360 to get away and run a few feet with Stinky hot on his trail. As soon as Wyatt stopped to sniff or pee, Stinky was right there, licking his rear again. This went on for 10 minutes - Stinky wouldn't even leave Wyatt alone while he was pooping... I won't go into details, it was gross. In a word, Stinky was obsessed. And it was driving Wyatt nuts. Halfway around the trail, Wyatt gave Stinky a CLEAR warning: he turned and growled. This only led to Stinky mounting him at which point Wyatt lost it - lips up, teeth bared, he went straight for his face. I threw my then-cold coffee at the two of them and gave Wyatt a quick shove and that was the end of it. Fortunately, Wyatt was all bark and no bite and no one was injured. I put them both on leash and walked a few feet, told them what good dogs they were, and released them again. And they were fine. Let me just tell you, a year ago, I would have been so rattled that they would have spent the rest of the walk on leash. These days, I've become quite comfortable with the notion that these two dogs have formed a relationship amid the most sticky of doggy situations so I can't expect perfection. I mean, isn't this how life is for us, too? Take my best friend and I - we were rivals when we were kids. Then, despite our best efforts, we realized we liked each other and that we were very much alike and now, 20-some-odd years later, she is still my best friend in this world. Have we bared our teeth at each other a few times along the way? Sure, though no blood was ever drawn :). If we never move past our squabbles, no one would have any friends. A pit bull and a bulldog? Why not? We could all learn a few things...