Fear Induced Sofa Sharing

Lady jumps on the sofa growling her fool head off.
(By the way, Lady Flame is muzzled to keep her from "worrying" a wound
on her tail. One more week to go, and she can be muzzle-free.)

Fear can make even the worst enemies share a moment once in awhile. There happened to be a lot of gun fire outside, or maybe it was fireworks. Anyway, Lady became extremely nervous. We were upstairs when we heard lots of growling and a bark from downstairs. I ran down to investigate, because Toby was on the sofa in a drug-induced nap (hung-over from his vet visit,) and I couldn't figure out what the ruckus was about. I saw Lady Flame get onto the sofa next to Toby, as her fear of fireworks overtook her loathing of her little brother. Since she doesn't like anyone near her when she is in panic-mode (or otherwise), and she wanted the sofa to herself, she growled her fool head off. I gave her a warning to stop growling because Toby was there first.

Lady Flame gingerly lays down next to Toby still growling.

Lady decided to lay down, but she was none too happy about her company on the sofa. As you can see, Toby was still out of it.

Lady cannot relax because her "brother" is way too close.

Lady eventually started to settle down, but you'll notice that her eyes are wide open, and she is avoiding eye contact.

Even though she is settling down, Lady Flame is still on the alert.

Even when settling down, Lady has to be peeking out of her semi-closed eyes. There might be some catastrophe that might befall her, and she has to be on the alert all the time. I feel so badly for our sweet pup.

If only Lady Flame could relax, even for a few moments, like her brother,
life would be so much happier for her.

Lady is such an uptight girl, and she has so much fear, 24/7. Try as we might, we cannot seem to help dispel her mistrust of the world. I wish that she could realize that we will always, always, always keep her safe.