Nose seriously out of joint

Ms. Fluff's nose is seriously out of joint. Our nextdoor neighbors now have a dog. She wasn't thrilled when the son, DIL, and grandkids moved in *and* started using the backyard, but she learned to adjust. It's not like she had access to their backyard, it's just that since no one else used it, either, she took to watching over it, as well as ours. Now the neighbors and their new dog are using the backyard!

The worst part for Fluff is that the dog is a Lab. Fluff doesn't care for labs, because Fluff is a Princess (i.e., not a dog), and Princesses have personal space that is not to be encroached upon by the peons. Unfortunately, Labs have no personal space of their own nor do they recognize that anyone else might have personal space. They also don't realize that a Princess is not a dog, so they treat Fluff like a dog. Shocking! Fluff only weighs about 45 lbs, so an on-rushing lab can easily knock her off her feet.

This afternoon the New Dog was out in its yard with one of the owners. Sleek went over to meet it through the fence. Fluff took one look at it and very pointedly would not look at that side of the yard again. I find her hysterically funny when she decides she cannot see something. She tries it with grooming tools (If I don't see the brush, I cannot be brushed, I am not being brushed....), the leash if she wants to go for a ride instead of a walk, and definitely the vet. She also does it with me when I say mean things like, "You have to stay home this time." Apparently if she doesn't see me say it, she can't hear it. Interesting.

Dogs are frighteningly similar to us sometimes. I know I had no genetic say on this animal (didn't even pick her parents for her), didn't meet her until she was 8 months old so the early puppyhood conditioning wasn't mine, and yet she mirrors so many of my behaviors that it can be creepy. (Yes, I sometimes carefully do not look at the neighbors since the one is most likely to want to talk to me when it's getting dark and I'm trying to get the grass mowed before full dark.)