Hissy Fit

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Do you know what a hissy-fit is? When is the last hissy-fit you've seen? I had a hissy-fit going on in my living room tonight. It's over now, but it lasted for a good 30 minutes. Let me tell you about it.

It started this way ....

I recently bought some new, giant rawhide chew bones for The Kids. These are the things that keep all of them, but especially The Baby, Lolita, from chewing on things I don't want them to, like my furniture. Silly me. Now, I bought four of them, so there would be enough to keep everyone busy. Yes, I know there is one less bone than I have dogs, but I figured that it is unlikely that all of them would want to chew at the same time. It has been no problem, because they do not all chew at one time. No problem. Yeah, right.

The problem is that they all want to chew the same one. Always! That is because after someone chews on it for a while, there is a soft place, all gooey and slick, that everyone wants to have their turn at. So when one baby leaves it for a moment, another slips right in and takes that prize to be his/her own. Often there is a little bit of a growl match when the first pup returns, but that's about the end of it. Once in a while while two of them are busy growling, a third removes it. When that happens, you should see the look on their faces when the two who are arguing realize it is missing! I try to trade it out from time to time, letting the soft icky one dry for a couple days.

Lola is the one who loves the chewys more than all the others put together. It makes sense because she is still sporting baby teeth and needs a teething toy. She drags it in and out, from room to room with her. She tries to bring them to bed, but I draw the line at that.

Well, tonight Lola had been on that chewy most of the evening. You'd think she would wear out, but nope. Chew, chew, chew, chew. Without my realizing it, she carried it onto the couch. By the time I noticed, I decided it was no problem for a while. When she was distracted with something or other, she got down from the couch, and while she was gone, Joey, who is nearly always beside me on the couch, began to gnaw on it.

Lola returned and was seriously upset that Joey had the chewy. I gave her another, but she wanted THE chewy. She got up and laid beside him, chin on the chouch, tip of her nose next to the chewy, emitting a low, mournful growl and watching him with soulful eyes. Every now and then a yip would escape, almost as if it just couldn't be kept in. Usually when that happened, she would half roll over and look from him to me and back again, with such pain in her eyes, then return to her original position, emitting that pained, moaning growl until another yip would tear its way up her throat.

She tried to bully him out of him, but the Elder Ststesman explained to her in a couple short, sharp tones that it was not going to happen. She would back off, flop down on her tummy and look up out of the top of her eyes with such misery, moaning and groaning and rolling around! For 30 minutes, she continued the obsessive pursuit of the prized chewy with no success.

I tried to pick her up and cuddle her, but she rolled and wriggled in my arms as if she were is pain, the little mournful growl never stopping. She rolled her head and her eyes in an attempt to watch Joey, and when I moved her head to the side away from him, the yip escaped. When I put her on the opposite side of me, to give Joey a bit of peace, she stuck her nose behind me and nudged and nudged until she managed to shove herself between the small of my back and the couch cushion, almost all the way behind me to the chewy! Oh, and moaning the whole way.

I kid you not, for more than half an hour, she was in constant motion, almost convulsing, moaning and yipping. Finally, she seemed to have worn herself out. She collapsed on the floor, fell into a motionless sleep, and was been there for over an hour. Joey quit chewing a while ago, so I put the chewy up to dry. When she woke, the girl checked the couch thoroughly before sliding into a puddle behind me where she is still sleeping, another hour later. It's gotta be hot between me and the cushion, but she doesn't seem to notice. At least she isn't doing the moaning growl any more.

Hissy-fit. I'm telling you. I'd forgotten how well a toddler can do one. My toddler has reminded me!

She do love her chew bone! She loves it a hissy-fit worth!

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