Let me give you all some history. I had two Maltese for years. Emma and Meckie were about two years apart. Emma was 6 months old when I adopted Meckie at 1 1/2 years. They grew old together, joined in later years by Fletcher the Ragdoll cat. We lost Meckie first and I got Becca about three months later. Emma was already quite old and frail. Becca, who was about a year old, took remarkable care of her. Would lead her around, cuddle up next to her. There were no problems between the two of them. The problems would happen if I picked up Emma. Becca would start to cry. If I put a sweater on Emma, Becca would literally try to take it off her. By that point Emma no longer had an interest in toys so there was no competition there. I could only imagine what would happen if a puppy tried to take one of Becca's precious pig ears!
I was always sure I would get a second one when we lost Emma. Something--call it gut instinct--has stopped me. |