Three years ago I had to give away three dogs because of issues of jealousy between them.

The first one was Muc Muc which means black (like ink) in Vietnamese. My daughter brought her when she was two weeks old. She was a calm dog. When she was one year old we get a dog companion for Muc Muc.

We adopted a two year old dog from the Humane Society, a brown and white dog named Coco. A week later, we had two more dogs from my brother. One had long white and grey hair and was named Cup. The other dog had brown hair and was named Twinkle. She was older than other three dogs. She was allergic to meat, but she loved fish and vegetables. Sometimes she ate food from Muc Muc‘s food tray and got a skin rash.

My husband spent a lot of time and money on them, buying toys, houses, treats, many outfits, and travel cases. When my husband got home from work, the dogs ran to him and waited for the treats. My husband would hug them back although he would not have time to hug me since we had four dogs, but that was fine with me.

Four dogs occupied one bedroom and the den. One day when I was in the living room, the dogs were in the den and I was surprised to see Coco use her two front legs pushing the patio sliding door open. Twinkle and Cup were beside Coco helping her. Muc Muc was watching the three of them in action. They ran to me when they saw me. I let the dogs go back to the den and left the door open with enough space for them to open again. They did it again. I set up a camera to try to record what they were doing, but at that point Coco and the others just stuck their heads at the open space and did not stand up to push the door.

One day, I cut Cup’s hair. When I put her back to the den with the others, Coco and Cup started to fight and I had to separate them. Muc Muc and Twinkle watched from their doghouses.

Another time, when I held Coco on my lap for a while then put her back on the floor, Coco and Cup fought again. My husband said they were jealous of each other. Next time I picked the two of them up at the same time. They were both happy in my lap. Yet another time I put one on the floor first, then the second dog on the floor. They started to fight hard with each other. It happened so many times to the point that sometimes they were bleeding. Muc Muc would run to her house. I was scared and since I thought Cup was the most jealous dog we put her up for adoption, even though we were sad. The three remaining dogs were fine for a couple of months, then the fights started up again between Coco and Twinkle. Every time the two dogs fought, Muc Muc ran to her house. Almost a year later. I gave Coco and Twinkle to the Humane Society for adoption.

Since then Muc Muc is by herself with us. She likes to jump in our bed on the weekend in the early morning to sleep with us. I wish the four of them could get together like in the pictures I still have in my computer. I miss Coco, Cup and Twinkle, and maybe Muc Muc does too.

Nhan lives in McCauley and owns the Pacific Cafe Cooking School at 10874 97 Street.