Hoarding or OCD

It has been a busy week.  Rufus Dexter and I went walking everyday and got some more good pictures to post later.

Now the subject of the day. "Is it Hoarding or OCD"

This is the look that we got the first time that we found out that Rufus is a "hoarder"
We only had him for about 3 weeks when I had a vacation week planned to go camping.
While I was gone with the dogs and the cat, my husband was home for a couple of days and decided to clean up the room that Rufus claimed as his own.
I was getting texts from him asking if I was missing a bra. I sent back that I was sure that I had them all accounted for.  Well, I guess I didn't.  My husband found one along with tea towels that had been hanging on the handle of the stove.  There were also socks.  Only one of each color.  Dog bones and dog toys.
They were hidden under the bed and in the closet and in a heap in the corners.
He didn't chew them. he just like to have them close I suppose.


Anyway, when we got home 5 days later I put the dogs in the house and went back for Bella and the some of the other stuff that we brought home.
Rufus met me at the door with the most sad sounding howl that I have ever heard.
When I asked him what was up.  He headed for the stairs.  I told him that he had to wait for just another moment.

When I got everything in he was waiting at the bottom of the stairs.  I followed him and he stopped at the doorway to the room and let out another howl as if to say "call the police, someone stole all my stuff"

The futon was made with a clean sheet and everything had been put into a Rubbermaid bin with the lid on it so he was confused as to where his toys were.  He then sulked all the way down the stairs and got up in the chair as if to say that he was not happy.  Now he makes sure that he is the first one in the room and he waits until he is sure that we are not cleaning everything up again.  (we wait until he is out).  He just shivers and shakes if he sees us with the vacuum or if we are in the room for too long. 

Wilson on the other hand was very OCD.  When we started getting some toys just for him he took very good care of them.  He made sure that they were all on his dog bed when he was not playing with them.

However.  When he went to bed he had to make sure that all of them were lined up just so or he would worry and shake until all of them were there.  

For Christmas the first year that we had Wilson he was given a "Bag of Coal"  In it were 5 plush "briquettes"

He got them all lined up around his bed and made sure that all 5 were there every night.

Wilson decided that his bed time was 7pm every night. He would huff at the top of the stairs as if to say "I'm going to bed now" and off he would go.  When I was on my way to bed I would look in on him and give him a pat on the head.  One day I accidentally moved one of his toys.  He stood up on his bed and gave me a look that almost said "Don't do that again" he then put the toy back to the spot it was in.  I think it only moved about an inch.  He looked again and made sure that nothing else was out of place then he laid back down and went back to sleep.  

Then every day after that I would hide his toys when he was up for the day.  I would "hide" them in the room all over the place.  I would put one on the book shelf within easy reach for him.  Another I would put under his bed, I would leave a desk drawer open and put one inside. One on the computer desk and on the office chair, on the printer tray. And so on.  

One night he went up and he was busy gathering up his toys and placing them just so, but about 20 minutes later he came to the top of the stairs and "huffed" at me.  I just told him to look again. So he went back up and I could hear him nosing around.  He came back to the top of the stairs an huffed again.  

I followed him up and he stopped by his bed and looked at all the toys he did find.  There was a space for the one that he couldn't find.  I showed him all the places that he already looked and he just gave me a look.

Finally he spotted the one on the office chair that he missed.  He took it and put it in its place, laid down and went to sleep.  

There were many nights when I would go to say good night to him on my way to bed that I found Bella cuddled up to him.  I never did get a photo of it and I really wish that I had.