I am in the middle of a sort of weird predicament. It's really not my predicament, but my best friend's and I am struggling with the wisest advice to give her regarding a certain Yorkie she is in love with. The Yorkie in question is my Max's sister, who is owned by my friend's previous employer. Max's sister is EXTREMELY timid and shy and absolutely ADORES my friend. She always has. Now, for some of the other facts. Her owner is a very socially prominent and wealthy woman and has 4 other dogs alone. The dogs are all very well taken care of (she's got staff to notice if anything's wrong with them if she doesn't notice it herself) as far as grooming, vet care etc, and they sleep with her at night. I know she cares about her dogs; that's not really the issue. She also has a gigantic array of large birds and a big pond with koi, and everything is kept very clean and taken care of. But.....she has many many very large parties, charity events and family things going on there, and the little dog is I think scared witless most of the time. I think I can say honestly that the dogs (and other pets) get less attention from their owner than they really need. It's not like she's neglecting them, at all. But some dogs need more one on one interaction and attention. I guess that's part of my point. The other thing is, the dog is about half the size of Max (or was...), just in stature alone. My friend saw her the other day and says that she now must weigh more than Max (which would make her pretty chubby if she's half his size to begin with), and I imagine that's b/c her owner is going thru a huge remodeling project and the dog isn't able to get the exercise she normally is used to? And, all of the dogs pee in the house (I know all the rest of them always did and I know that Max's sister was difficult to housebreak to begin with, but my friend tells me that she is the WORST offender and she even pooped right on the sofa!
OK...this is the problem: My friend LOVES the dog, the dog LOVES my friend: when my friend quit working for this lady, apparently the dog went into a huge depression and when my friend went to see her, the dog zoomed and jumped over planters to get to her
. My friend WANTS the dog. She wants to buy the dog or whatever she can do to have THAT dog (short of stealing her of course). I don't think the lady would be willing to either give the dog to my friend or sell her, even though she knows how much the dog loves my friend and how much better she is when my friend is there (she just sits in her arms with her head tucked under her chin on her chest, which she would never do with ANYBODY else). In addition, she's got huge professional framed photos of this dog in her office, so there's another investment she's made in the dog.
I've tried to talk to my friend and tell her that she needs to get her OWN Yorkie that she can love, b/c even though we think it would be in the dog's best interest for her to own the dog, it's not her dog; it's someone else's.
I don't think there's a huge bond between the owner and the dog, but it's HERS....
What do you think is rational for me to tell my friend? She's thinking of going back to work for the woman just so she can be with the dog again! Or buying another really cute dog and "trading" it for Max's sister. OR, offering to buy the dog for much more than she paid for her (up to a pretty high amount
). I just don't know what to advise b/c I'm tied to both the people, and the dog and I really don't want to encourage my friend in something that is only going to cause more pain. I know this sounds so convoluted; one of those things that you had to kind of live thru to get what's going on, but I think there's a lot of very wise people here who can see thru all the fluff and get to the core of the realities and suggest something that makes sense and doesnt' cause anymore drama than what's already going on!
Sorry this is so long, but it's really causing me a lot of stress b/c it involves my friend moving back here (which I know she Hates it here which is why she moved), and just the whole dog thing. Has anyone else had something like this happen? I am truly grateful for any rational thoughts here!