Kissin' Cousins

Last weekend, Kevin's family visited so we could celebrate the "winter birthdays."  Kevin, his brother, and his mom all have birthdays in January and February, so we usually all get together sometime in February to celebrate all of them.  It was exciting to have them all down to our place.

The birthday kids.

Without a doubt, the most exciting thing about the weekend was my brother and sister-in-law's boxer, Stanley, meeting Snuffles.

This was Stanley last Christmas:

 
With Kevin's grandma, for scale:

This was Stanley last weekend:

And this is Snuffles:

Snuffles has had limited experience with dogs.  There was the one time when she about a year old, when Kevin and I said, "Hey!  Snuffles loves being outside, so let's take her to the park!"  This was not our best idea, ever.  We shoved her in her carrier (which she hates) and carried it about five blocks to one of the neighborhood parks, jostling her the whole way.  Once we got to the park, she didn't want to leave her carrier, she was so terrified of the new, big, strange place.  The icing on the cake was the slobbering dog that galloped towards us excitedly, sticking his nose between the bars of her carrier.  She yowled and hissed, and that was our last trip to the park.  Subsequent encounters with dogs had been at a distance, and if a dog is more than five or so feet from her, she hasn't really cared.

Stanley is not the type of dog to stay five or so feet away from anyone.  He really, really, really wanted Snuffles to be his friend.  I'm not sure what exactly he had in mind.  That they would snuggle together? (That's what I was wishing for) That she would play like a dog?  Most of the weekend went something like this:

1.  Snuffles is curled up somewhere.
2.  Stanley approaches cautiously, circling, sniffing.
3.  Stanley gets closer.
4.  Snuffles emits a low growl.
5.  Stanley somehow misinterprets this and sticks his nose in her face.
6.  Snuffles hisses.
7.  Snuffles swats, narrowly missing nose.
8.  Snuffles hides behind the couch.
9.  Stanley howls, sneezes, and yawns, distraught that his cousin will not play with him.

Here's a snippet:

I didn't capture the swat on video, but here is a brief clip that is clearly post-swat.  Watch as Snuffles daintily tucks her paw back underneath her, murder in her eyes:

The highlight, though, was early in the weekend when Snuffles thought that running away from this beast was her best course of action.  She only made this mistake once.  As soon as she started running, Stanley took off after her.  There was much skidding and scrambling of paws on the hardwood floors as Snuffles nimbly rounded the corners that she's used to, and Stanley struggled to keep his feet underneath him.  They circled around the main level twice (this may or may not be because we were laughing too hard during the first go-round) before Blair was able to catch Stanley, allowing Snuffles to make a getaway.

Disclaimer:  I do not believe in any way, shape, or form that Stanley would've hurt Snuffles at all.  If any thing, I think it would've been the other way around.  I think if he had caught her, he would've been completely bewildered.

I wish I conclude this post by posting a picture of the two beloved pets cuddling together, or at least sitting near each other with no drama, but the best I can say is that Snuffles did not slice Stanley's nose open, which is better than I had expected.

Epilogue:  As I transferred these videos onto the computer and watched them, Snuffles, who had been dozing on my lap, sat straight up, ears back, and looked around very carefully.  She's sleeping again now, so I think she's realized it's safe.