Although it is hard to believe that our animals have feelings of jealousy or dislike for other pack members, sometimes I see evidence of it in their behavior toward each other (or maybe it is just me humanizing my dogs?)
Recently, Kitsu, our newest pack member, has been having her own unusual health issues. Now, we have had Meko since she was two months old and now, at nearly 12, she is definitely our number one girl. She also has the most personality of our three dogs. Meko has been coughing a lot, a symptom of an enlarged heart. Because of her coughing, we are giving her extra attention. Kitsu, who has been healthy since we got her a year and a half ago (she will be 8 in about a week) knows she takes a back seat to Meko, always. But suddenly she has a variety of issues that is getting her nearly equal time in the attention department.
She has been a good jumper since the day we got her and she'll jump up on your chair (with little notice) and she runs up a flight of stairs, taking them two at a time. About a week ago, I heard a lot of stumbling as she followed me upstairs and tripped. When I went to check on her, she was holding her paw up. Over the week this happened another time or two and then she jumped off the bed, which was never a problem before, but now this seemed to do more damage than either of us liked.
We are off to the vet's office tomorrow. I do believe she strained her ankle or did some damage to her foot, and we'll find out for sure tomorrow. But she is really building it up, too. She is getting more attention than before, so whether she really hurt her foot or not, it worked!