A BIRTHDAY!

Today was Big B's birthday...the big birthday number 4.... We spent a quiet day...well he spent it working most of the afternoon. SIL A came over as well as mom mom. Each brought their dog so we had 4 dogs here each with his or her own personality. (I guess you know where this could be going.) Everyone was well-behaved for most of the visit both the kids and the dogs. Buddy, JD, Eddie and Meadow seemed to all get along wonderfully even falling asleep under the dining room table during dinner.
It was afterwards that the fun started during the time I was trying to separate them for feeding. Eddie and JD together because they are the ones who get along the best while Buds and Meadow were outside. As I was trying to bring Buddy in and make the others go out something happened and before we knew it Buddy was on top of Meadow in an outright brawl. JD and Eddie were trying to get involved as well but I was able to drag them out while making sure my kids were out of danger. "A" sprung to her feet and was able to separate the dogs..as dangerous as it was. Buddy is an 85 pound yellow lab and Meadow is a sheltie type maybe half his size. We got all dogs outside except for Meadow who now was favoring one of her paws. She was shaken up but was okay. It was soon after the fight that the small get together ended.
I have a soft spot in my heart for dogs. They can be cute, gentle, loyal and a constant companion. However, dogs are dogs. They have an instinctive nature that makes them an animal to respect. Yes, humans need to be their alpha in all respects. We can love them and cuddle them but children should be taught to respect the dog and learn the proper ways to deal with them.
This fight had nothing to do with our kids...but it had everything to do with food and the alpha had not been established yet between the four of them. It's always scary to be near a dog fight.

Now back to the birthday. It turned out to be a very nice visit and I hope Big B enjoyed the time that he was home.

I also just wanted to post some pictures of S that I took tonight right before she went to bed. She is so pretty and I wanted to capture her beauty. I'm so lucky to be her mom.