Food fight followup

Just wanted to report that the injury to the Jeeps's nose is not nearly as bad as the blood caused me to believe. It's sort of like biting your tongue, I think – even a small cut just bleeds and bleeds and bleeds. But Mr. A didn't even notice the wound, and in fact by this morning I could hardly see it myself.

I did still tell him about what happened, though, and we decided that feeding them in totally separate rooms is probably not really necessary as long as we stand firm in watching them the whole time they're eating, and pick up the bowls as soon as they're finished.

I called it a food fight, but I think "fight" is the wrong word. To me, "fighting" implies that they're both engaged in an ongoing, violent struggle, and both trying to win, and that isn't what happens. None of these incidents has ever lasted more than one or two seconds, and this was only maybe the fourth or fifth one in five years. Basically, all that happens is that the Jeeps tries to steal or in some other way shows what Tater believes to be inordinate interest in some food item that Tater considers his, and Tater makes a show of flashing teeth to chase the Jeeps away, and the Jeeps backs down. It's not fighting, and it isn't even really what I would call an "attack." It's just one dog defending his food from another. All dogs do that. Jeepies, too – although Tater has never been so presumptuous as to approach the Jeeps when he's eating.

If it sounds like I'm trying to minimize what happened ... well, I don't know if I'd say that. I'm just trying to see it for what it was. The blood scared me, but I don't think it means we have a vicious dog on our hands. Clearly not. We just need to do a better job of controlling their access to food.