The theme of this week’s Sunday Stills Photo Challenge, is called “A Dog’s Life”. I grew up with dogs, but don’t have any of my own currently (I have a cat). Therefore, I will introduce you to a very spoiled dog, who rules my parent’s house.

This is Krieger, my brother’s 100+ pound doberman. After my brother died, Krieger moved in with my parents, and my parent’s 8 pound poodle. He was already familiar with the house and my parents and Bella (the poodle) because my brother would drop Krieger off at my parent’s house while he was at work.

Krieger, taking the example from Bella, believes that he is a lap dog too, and tries to climb into people’s laps. He also takes up half the couch, but doesn’t mind sharing (see photo to the left).

He enjoys being played with 24 hours, 7 days a week. He especially likes when my father holds the chew bone for him (for hours). He likes to scratch at the treat cabinet whenever he wants a treat (which is all the time), and he likes to step outside the house and come back in immediately, because he knows he “deserves” a treat whenever he comes back in from being outside.

He barks at everything, including the many squirrels that frequent the trees in the front yard, because THOSE ARE HIS TREES AND HOW DARE THOSE SQUIRRELS USE THEM!

His only regret in life is that the poodle was master of the house before him, so he is only a beta and not the alpha. This is only a problem sometimes, when he would really like to finish his breakfast, but the poodle wants to eat some of it first.

The picture to the right is a picture of Krieger laying in the guest bed I use at my parent’s house. You see it correct: his butt is near the pillows. Of course he was laying in the middle of the bed, and even though he generously shared the bed with me (I had less of it than he did), I was sadly (for him) forced to make him leave after only a few minutes.

Normally, I would not be so cruel to the dog (becaues of course he is my ruler), but Krieger frequently has stomach issues, and that night it was in full force. After about the fifth expulsion in the general direction of my face, I just could not take it anymore.

After some general groaning and grunting, he agreed to leave, and promptly went into his own (dog) bed in my parent’s room. I wished them good luck.

Animals in my family are treated as members of the family. I often joke with my boyfriend that the cat is our “Overlord”. They tell us when we can go to bed (10:00 p.m. in the case of Krieger), and when we can wake up (6:30 a.m. in the case of my cat). Feeding time in the evening is 6:00 p.m. for my cat, (4:00 p.m. for the dogs) and when this is not fulfilled, then lots of complaining ensues. But that’s okay, because they are dogs and cats and they deserve it.

Do you have a dog or cat with similar experiences?