Hormone Hell

Hormone hell in this house recently. Nina's in season, so she's stir-crazy from being kept indoors. She's on a diet of Tic-Tacs to mask the attraction to Max and Satch. It has worked, in that we didn't have a night when Max barks all night, which we usually do. He barked a lot, mind, and nearly drove me mad, but at least I didn't have to sleep on the breakfast room table, whch I had to do last season. Why does he quieten down when I'm in the room? I don't even want to go there! Satch is funny. He's not been allowed to cross paths with his mum much either, but when he does, he just thinks playing with mum is so, so exciting. He wags his tail faster than I've ever seen before, play bows and jumps around, but clearly has no idea why he's finding her particularly exciting right now. I'm sure he'd work it out if they were together for long, though, so they've definitely been kept apart. Things are finally starting to calm down. They're all together as I type this - Max sat on my lap; situation normal. I always feel as though I've got him back from a journey when he starts to be able to turn attention to me again after a week or so of total monomania with Nina. Maybe he'll even start eating again soon. He won't touch dog food - tinned or dried - for about 10 days. Predictably, he doesn't seem to think sausages and dog biscuits (fed by hand, of course) count as food, so that's what he's been living on, but he's still skinny.