Good golly, Ollie

(good thing my parents don't read my blog...)

My parentals are quite convinced they have the perfect "child" in Oliver.  He can do no wrong in their eyes.  He is the child they always wanted.

In my father's office, there is a picture of the 4 of us kids hanging on the wall.  Beside this picture is a picture of just Oliver.  There appears to be an imbalance in the world...

OLD picture...we all look much better now!

We all know that whenever the parentals go out of town, I stay at their house.  We like to keep Oliver in his environment, after all (and he is way too much dog to reside in my home with me and my own two monsters).

This past weekend, Oliver demonstrated just how far he would take his only-child mentality/status. 
Older sister Cathy and brother-in-law Jay brought home two cutie patootie puppies about 6 weeks ago.  Oliver was the first dog to meet the new additions and my mother thought he was so great with them.  She said he was gentle.  She said when they were sparring he would get in there and break it up.  All this changed when toys were introduced into the picture.  Oliver is a toy-hoarder.  He has many, many toys and they are all his.  Even when my precious blind Penelope is over and goes to retrieve the one toy she fondly remembers and still loves - a little blue football (she doesn't too much care for the red one and how she tells them apart is beyond me considering her...um...blindness), he will steal it from her.  Even when all the dogs are given brand new bones to chew, Oliver will want one that someone else is chewing on.  When we are outside with the dogs, he will want only the toy being tossed for another dog.

My mom is in the process of making some decorative items for younger sister Linda's baby shower.  She bought a cute baby toy - a stuffed giraffe that sings his A-B-Cs.  Somehow, one afternoon, when my mom left Oliver free to roam the house while she went for a walk, Oliver ended up discovering this toy up on the table and stole it (she claims it must have fallen on the floor and that he was confused).  She had to buy a second toy to hide for later.  Um...me thinks later Ollie will discover this hidden treasure and once again claim it as his own.

Cathy came up with a brilliant idea of buying a puppy mini monkey toy and then a grown-up matching monkey guy for Ollie.  She thought this would break him of the habit of having to have what anyone else had so that her puppies could enjoy their toys and so that baby-to-be Ethan (Linda's little bun in the oven) would be able to enjoy his toys in the future.  This plan didn't work.  Ollie only wanted the mini monkey toy.

Jay captured Ollie hoarding mini monkey.

Later, Ollie would put toys and/or bones into one of the puppy's beds to tempt them...and then, when they got curious as to what new and exciting item awaited them, he would attack (by way of growling/barking at them meanly and lunging forward).

Ollie tauning a sweet innocent puppy.

About the only time Ollie was sweet was when he was sleeping.  I don't know if I've ever mentioned this before, but Oliver likes to rest his chin high up on some body part of mine (or my mom's when she is home with him).  Usually he chooses my hip or my leg.  Well, on Sunday during our scheduled nap (yes, it was me and 3 dogs in a bed - yikes), Ollie rested his chin upon Penelope.  I couldn't resist taking this picture.

that's a pretty hefty head to have on top of you!

And just for good measure, here's another cute picture...this one of how my Penelli and Delilah sometime sleep - side by side - so sweet!

of course this is at the foot of the side of the bed where I sleep...

So yeah...Oliver was a bad boy this weekend.  We texted my parents pictures of him being a bully (no pun intended) and they accused us of posing him and/or setting him up (or even being jealous of him).  *Sigh*  how come I didn't get this whole "benefit of the doubt" thing when I was growing up???