The Dog That Thinks She's Human

This is Little Miss. The dog that thinks she's human... or a cat. She just turned seven years old and this is where she sleeps most of the time. We made Little Miss a member of the family when she was just a pup. We tried training her to sleep in a dog bed on the floor, but she would spend all night crying and my sensitive heart couldn't take the sadness. We decided to let her sleep with us and she went right to my husbands pillow. And that is where it started. Instead of teaching her to sleep at the foot of the bed, he allowed her to stay on his pillow. And now, seven years later, this is normally where she sleeps.

Once my husband and I are in bed, Little Miss will jump up on the bed and wedge her way between us. She goes under the blanket, spins around, and pops her head out to lay it on daddy's pillow like a little kid. And she will stay like that for most of the night. When she's not sleeping like that, she sleeps curled up on one of our pillows, or both. We are no longer allowed to cuddle at night because of Little Miss sleeping between us. And if it's not her getting between us, one of the two boys takes up the mantle and sleeps between us... ugh!

Little Miss also tends to sit upright like a human, with her back against the seat and her front paws in the air. I know she does this for belly rubs, but it is still adorable and makes it seem like she's trying to be human! This dog is just too much sometimes! I absolutely love watching her behave in this manner!

On holidays like Thanksgiving (an American Holiday) and Christmas, Little Miss and the other dogs, and now cats, get to have dinner with us. They get turkey and all the trimmings, or ham and all the trimmings. If she doesn't get dinner, she pitches a fit in her doggy way. She will go to each of the actual humans, stare at our plates, then look around for hers. And when she finally gets her plate of holiday dinner, she inhales it and licks the plate clean (kind of like a piggy haha). On Christmas, she even gets a stocking full of treats and toys. She doesn't get her own, however. She has to share with the boys, especially since she only wants the treats, not the toys.

When playing with us, Little Miss likes to "box." She will stand on her hind legs, put her front paws up in the air, and box our hands, or hit our fists with her paws. She grunts and grumbles as she does it too like a professional boxer in a match!

And then there are the times when...

She thinks she's a cat.

Due to the placement of the furniture in the living room, Little Miss has figured out that she can jump up into the bay window like the cats do. This morning, instead of jumping down when she was caught up there, she laid down and just looked at me. She will curl up to sleep wherever she can fit. She's been caught sleeping in boxes, like cats do, sleeping curled up on an office chair, pillows, all of the furniture in the house, anywhere. She will also eat cat food if it is available, even if the dogs have dog food down for themselves.

She also likes to get up on the back of the sofa, or one of the chairs, lay across them, and lay her head on our shoulders. She began doing this as a puppy and has not stopped, even though we tried training her to stay down. Eventually we just gave up and let her do it. She wasn't hurting anyone or anything by sleeping like this, so it was no big deal.

She's not always acting like a human or a cat. Most of the time, she behaves like any other dog. She gets territorial and possessive. She gets protective of those she loves, both human and animal alike. She taps into her working dog roots and will herd us where she wants us to go. She herds the other dogs as well. When she does this, she pushes up against whomever she wants to move with her body and will not let them go anywhere but where she wants. She also tries to establish dominance among the other animals. She tries to dominate me, but she loses every time! She really does like to think she's the boss!

When she's not acting like a cat, she chases them and bullies them. It's hard trying to get her to stop being like this, as she did not grow up with cats. She was just introduced to them last year, so her catlike behavior is new as well. I think she sees the cats get up into the window and says to herself, "If they can do it, so can I!"

Little Miss seems to be seriously confused about what type of animal she is most of the time, but that's okay. It makes her unique and special. It also gives us more reason to love her! This foolish dog never fails to bring us amusement, and she never fails to brighten my darkest days! She truly is a member of our family and we love this crazy dog, human, cat!