Roxie Hated Halloween

Roxie hated Halloween as much as Hardy hated the Fourth of July. She barked and trembled all day from fear. I'm not sure exactly what she was afraid of, maybe just the unfamiliar faces and costumes. Maybe its because I didn't allow her to eat any candy?

She growled every time someone came to the door. She barked at children young and old. In fact, it seemed as though she barked at the young ones even more. It made me wonder why. I've noticed that she doesn't like children at all. She has grown a ton since I adopted her, but obviously she still has a long way to go.

My son came back for the weekend and we had a wonderful time catching up with him. The first thing he said to me when I got home from work was how much better Roxie had behaved. He said she greeted him warmly when he arrived, and he noticed how she doesn't dart away from him. He said she sat in the family room with him, and he enjoyed being with her at our house while waiting for me to arrive.

My daughter, in contrast, said that Roxie doesn't like her much. She said that Roxie doesn't seem interested when she comes home, and that Roxie is a little reclusive. She simply waits for me to arrive home from work in another room. She was disappointed when she opened up the toy basket today, and couldn't entice Roxie to play with her.

Roxie gets excited when my husband comes home from work though. She likes to greet him at the door, and she welcomes him home with glee. It's cute how she jumps around the room, and wags her tiny cotton tail. It's getting to the point when I get up in the middle of the night, she will not follow me. She feels comfortable staying with him until I come back.

But yesterday was hard for her. Our neighborhood does Halloween up big. People from all over our tiny city come to our neighborhood to trick-or-treat. My neighbors across the street have a graveyard, with zombie like characters climbing out of the graves. They also put up a gallows with a hanging zombie and a strobe light. There was a "haunted house" way down the street (past where the attack occurred). There was even a costume parade in the afternoon.

During the parade, I wore my witch's costume and my husband and I sat on our lounge chairs out by the curb. I brought Roxie on a leash, but eventually had to put her in the house because I could NOT get her to stop barking. She growled at our neighbor's sweet little girl, and I just couldn't stand for that. I love that little girl, and we were both dressed, quite nicely if I do say so myself, in our awesome witch costumes.

My son got called to DJ a Halloween party, so he went home. My daughter had plans to go trick-or-treating with a teenager that she's been babysitting for years, so the house was empty except for my husband and me. I finally gave up trying to get Roxie to relax. We had only three pieces of candy left (what began as three fairly big bags), so I turned off the porch light to make it look like no one was home.

I checked one last time to see if anyone was coming, and there were two little monsters sashaying  up our walkway, so I gave away two more pieces leaving three for Paul and me. I watched our neighbor snapping photos of his graveyard, complete with dry ice smoke wafting around the scene.  I put Roxie in my lap and brushed her until she stopped trembling. When we both couldn't keep our eyes open any longer, I carried her up to bed. It was not what I had expected for Halloween. I wonder what will happen next year.