Xena: another warrior princess…

(Part 2 of 2)

After lunch, in a cafe overlooking the Seine, Oscar and Lucy browse the website Alerte SOS as they finish their wine. As they look through the pictures, taking note of any rescue dogs close enough to visit, Oscar joking (not joking) reminds Lucy, that since they got a dog, he get’s fewer cuddles on the sofa since their little daschunde mix always takes the prime spot next to Lucy. 

A dog called ‘Bella’ appears which seemed like someone had been playing with cruel irony in her naming. The point of no return was distinct. We started working out what we would name her IF we managed to adopt her. We went through a few fashion names, the usual suspects… Coco, Pucci, Prada. We also wanted something that sounded distinct from Baloo and had no more than 2 syllables, but it was all sounding a bit ‘camp’. Not that we don’t love some camp, we found ourselves in a slightly different gay direction in the form of the empowered lesbian icon 'Xena - Warrior Princes’. THATS what I wanted for that lil’ dog! Empowerment!

So……….. we got Bella and named her Xena. 

Xena, is bigger than Baloo so he would have to adapt to the big sister he never asked for. Oscar and Lucy had to adapt too, the coffee table was no longer a safe place to leave food for example. She slowly settled in but it took about a week for Xena to sit on Oscars lap. But years on, as I write this, she’s still here on my lap with her chin resting on my left arm. 

She developed a character very different to Baloo. Occasionally a bit of fear aggression arises, she flinched at a parked bicycle once. Baloo is independent on a walk, busy doing sniffs and taking his marking duties very seriously. Seeing this, Xena started to copy, first peeing where he does and eventually copying his stance (one leg up).

Today, Xena is pure love. A key difference between her and Baloo is that when Oscar joins the sofa last (almost always), she’ll drag herself, army crawl style over to sit in the space between Oscar and Lucy. She’s wary of strangers, but break that boundary and I swear you get something even more special. She loves to obsession her ball named ‘Bob’. Say ‘Where’s Bob Xena?’ And she’ll disappear, return moments later and drop Bob in your bath. 

Chucking the ball out of the bath has seemed to reinforce the behaviour.