life, the universe, and donna

Justice adores Nick. I think I’ve said this before. She sleeps on his side of the bed, usually wrapped around his legs or through his feet. When I get up before he does, she cuddles in next to him and has to be coaxed to come downstairs for breakfast & her morning pee. She is absolutely enamoured with him, and quite frankly, I can’t blame her. He’s pretty awesome.

She’s also very, very protective of him.

So, Justice has a rather interesting history, most of which is unknown, but has left her with some neurosis that give me some fairly educated guesses as to some of the abusive events in her past. For one, she has been known to hate men with hats and sticks — like, say, the older gentleman at the dog park with the “Chuck-it” I’ve got a Chuck-it, and she doesn’t have any problem with it, but the combination of man + hat + chuckit sets her off. She’s also been known to go crazy at old guys with canes. Ok, so she’s not a fan of men with sticks. Got it.

Last night, a rapier fighting friend of Nick’s came over, and at one point Nick was showing him a heavy fighting move with one of his (fake) swords… which is basically a big stick. Lee swung the sword toward Nick, and Justice LOST it. Like, to the point where I think if I hadn’t already had her by the collar (she occasionally gets underfoot and barky when Nick’s practising with his sword) she would have attacked Lee. This was more than the usual defensive barking she does when she hears odd noises, or when someone comes to visit, this was “I’m going to kill you” snarling/lunging/mad-teeth.

I’m almost certain that it was a combination of “Man-with-a-stick” and “Don’t you hit my Nick!” The two together just cracked her poor little brain.

We ended up hanging out together upstairs locked in the office for a bit so she could calm down, but even when I came back down… any quick movements toward Nick, or if Lee went to pick up a sword, she’d start going crazy again. I ended up sitting on the floor with her in my lap and her head tucked under my hoodie (and gripping her collar tightly) so she couldn’t see anything, and that kept her pretty calm.

Overall, I wish the poor thing didn’t have so many bloody issues (more for her sake than mine — she’s generally really good, but I hate to see her all stressed out and anxious), but at the same time I can’t help but be amused at how quick she was to try to defend Nick. I know, baby. I don’t want anything to happen to him either. But seriously, Nick is far better equipped to defend himself than either of us. Sure, no mad teeth, but is quite talented with a sword.

And really, is this the face of a killer? Well, in the right circumstance… I guess so…