Toepy & Beans

We don't have kids - we have pets. Two dogs, one black the other white. Toepy is our white (with some black spots strategically located to give her a "panda look") furry mongrel and Beans is our black labrador retreiver.

Toepy, having been with us for almost five years now, is fiercely loyal and has the mentality of a chihuahua. She follows us everywhere in our tiny home, gets easily startled, feels abandoned whenever we walk two feet away from her, longs to be carried (as if she does not weigh 15 kilos!) and actually hangs on to every word we say to her. She absolutely hates competition, for our attention, that is, and ruthlessly guards her dark aquamarine bed like a fortress. Who does she guard it from?

Beans. Yup, just a year and three months old and weighing in at a hefty 25 kilos (we guess). He came into our lives with the zeal and excitement of a gnat on my bare leg and expected everyone to feel the same -- even Toepy. You guessed it -- she hated him.

But that's all history now and they play like your typical cat and mouse -- Toepy being the cat, of course, the alpha dog, and Beans being the submissive mouse at the growling reprimand of his master dog. But the playfulness remains, as long as it's on Toepy's terms.