As I was preparing to head out of town last week for work, my inevitable stress about how the pets would survive without me begin to kick in. Despite the fact that Zach is more than capable of taking care of them and would also be there the whole time (no boarding or pet sitters needed), I was still quite concerned that both Diggs and Isis would be stressed without me. To be fair, this is fear isn’t entirely unwarranted. The first time we had to travel out of town, a friend came and stayed with Diggs. While he did very well when the friend was there, apparently the stress really had been too much for him. We came back home and almost immediately started dealing with evidence of his distress. Without going into details, let’s just say they should make a biohazard suits available for rental. (This was also the series of events that taught us that Diggs can break out of his crate if properly motivated.)
Fast forward to my trip almost being over. Diggs and Isis are doing great. Neither of them has been particularly off schedule or needing unusual amounts of attention. It will be interesting to see how they react once I get back home, but I’m hopeful that while they will be excited and glad to see me, it won’t be this earth shattering thing for them. I almost wonder if I wasn’t as stressed when I was getting ready to leave as I would have normally been since I knew Zach would be there, and if Isis and Diggs didn’t recognize that. In their minds, did the lower stress level mean that I was definitely coming back as opposed to a very high stress level maybe not?
How much of Diggs’ separation anxiety could have been reinforced by my own anxiety about how he’s doing? What does separation anxiety look like with you and your pets?
PS-As a quick note, the video from Digg’s treat triad will go up once I get home. Unfortunately the hotel internet is too spotty to be able to post it.
Our Four Legged Family 