Silent Night

So a couple of weeks ago we had our first trial run of leaving the boys home alone. We went out for a quick Target trip with the intent to be back within about an hour. Before we left, we turned to say goodbye and our sweet little boys were sitting side-by-side in the cuddle cup before it was destroyed in the famous "liposuction" incident. 

The true test came when we pulled into the garage though - when it was just Mochi, he'd cry like he was neglected and/or tortured once he heard the garage door open. So we braced ourselves as the rollup door opened and we turned off the radio. To Ted's surprise (but not as much to mine), there was absolutely no crying. When we opened the interior door, we found our little babies laying pretty much where we left them, looking up at us.

Fast Forward three weeks to Obiee's "tutoring" weekend: We went out to dinner on Saturday night and we wanted to see how they'd react to being separated. To keep in line with the vet's recommendation to keep them apart to avoid Mochi disturbing the incision area and to keep Obiee's activity level low, we tried penning Obiee (with the bucket on his head) and giving Mochi the free reign that he was formerly used to. Ted shut the double doors to try to keep the heat in the front room where Obiee was penned, and Mochi seemed perfectly content to lay on one of the new beds on the family room floor. Since the pocket door on the other side of the room was left open, my prediction was that we'd find Mochi on the couch in the front room to spend time with brother.

When we came back from dinner, at first there was no crying. I opened the door and heard Obiee crying from the pen with no sight of Mochi, which was weird since he's always at the door when we come home when he's not penned. I thought maybe he was just sleeping, so I went to the pocket door and didn't find him at first glance in the family room. I heard banging on the double doors and realized he thought he was locked out. I called him and he finally came running around to the front room. It was then that I realized that as I passed Obiee in the pen, his bucket was sitting on the opposite end of the pen from him. He's a little escape artist. I also realized that while we did everything we could think of to keep Mochi from plowing through the double doors in the early days, we could have outsmarted him by rehanging the doors to open into the room we tried to contain him in. But that would have taken work.