We adopted a dog on Thursday, which kept us busy from the minute I picked Carrie up until almost 10pm. She spent a long weekend with my mother, from Friday until late yesterday. So, special playtime has not happened in the last week. Keefer and I tried last night, but she was so anxious and wound up that she resisted at every turn. She ended up crying herself to sleep last night after 9pm. It all seems strange and difficult to explain. I thought that she would be excited to get back home to her new dog. I met my mother at PetsMart in Richmond, where Carrie and I picked out a dog bed for Abby (the dog). Instead of being excited for Abby, she kept insisting that she is also a dog and that she needs a dog bed. I didn't get her one. I told her that it was nice to pretend to be a dog, but that I wasn't going to buy anything for her playing game. At home she kept insisting that she's a dog. She took two bowls from the cabinets and put them on the floor. She put her dinner in one of the bowls and ate it that way. Then she wanted a crate, so she repurposed a toy box as a crate. When it was time for bed, she refused to lie in her real bed. Instead she ripped off all the covers and sheets and wanted to throw them away. She got so worked up that she literally screamed for a couple minutes while Keefer and I waited behind a closed door in our own bedroom. I felt almost like a prisoner. Keefer gave her a when/then statement that he would read a story when she calmed down. She never did. Instead she started berating herself about not knowing how to read. She called herself stupid and referred to herself as the weird kid. After she had finally been quiet a while I laid down with her to just comfort her and show some love.
This morning she was defiant at every turn. No matter what Keefer asked her to do, she refused. She even took off her pants outside (in public) while they were walking Abby because they were itchy or didn't fit right.
