This ruins my plans (Patreon)

I had it all thought out. I was going to let Juniper sleep in the room with me every night and have Howie sleep behind the baby gate in the bathroom so that she could see him and get used to him being in our “safe place” together. This is where we are all the calmest so having him in the bedroom with us and sleeping in the same area was what I believed would help them to associate each other in the nicest way possible.

Howie isn’t having it though. He has pretty severe separation anxiety, so being confined to the bathroom has him losing his mind. His high anxiety is putting everyone else on edge.

Juniper is doing great and is simply watching him, but with him screaming and being so upset I can’t leave him in there all night. It’s been 45 minutes and he’s yet to calm down.

He does well when I confine him to the hallway when the foxes are inside, but they have so much room to roam in the main living areas he may as well not even be there. They’re not taking him into account at all which isn’t helping the process.

A lot of you mentioned in my previous post that I could adopt him out and get a dog that the foxes would be more accepting of. The issue is that they’re going to be this way with any new dog. I barely recall how we eventually got Juniper to accept chewy, but I remember it being a very long drawn out process. She doesn’t like dogs except for her dogs. So, if Howie doesn’t stay I very well may not have another dog until after Juniper passes. Which is fine. I’m just very attached to this pup and want it to work out.

I’m going to continue trying at least until December since it’s unlikely Howie would go to a new home right away with the holiday coming up. Next we’ll try walking them together and see if that helps.

😮‍💨