When I envisioned having all the pets together, I assumed we’d have antics galore to describe.

In fact, the bigger dogs are like rugs: they lay around.

But blending the family has not gone easily. Riley, the littlest, feels insecure. After all, a bunch of big dogs and a cat have come into his territory. He has become even more barky and aggressive. It’s not pretty.

Riley and Puddin, our chow, are fine together. We take them for walks together and they can hang out. Mutual respect. Puddin’ is protective of Riley and whines if we discipline Riley by crating him and he barks in protest. She does not like to see Riley upset.

But 14-year-old Tinker can’t see well and when Riley barks in her face she wants to protect herself. I’m afraid she’ll hurt Riley. She is really not doing well overall. Her hindquarters are so weak she can hardly stand up. But she is not in pain. Our vet prescribed some natural therapies he thinks could be helpful.

Our hound, Little He, lounges on the sofa. The graphic above reminded us of him. But Riley’s made Little He his bitch and the hound is terrified of the tiny terrorista.

And the cat? Ah, Riley sees her as prey so we have to keep her isolated. She’s very sweet and I hate that she can’t be part of the crowd. That’s the scenario.

Riley has begun to act out toward us. We have a very good trainer on it with us, but it is a lot of work and we have to be consistent. Here he is in his “spawn of the devil” persona.

I am seeing Xanax in our future.

A big part of the problem is the open floor plan of this house and how small it is for the number of pets. We plan to solve this when we move to California by finding a bigger house with a layout that allows more flexibility in where we isolate various pets.

I’ve posted our needs on Craigslist, and have gotten responses from owners willing to rent to us and our menagerie. Encouraging. But so far, not the right house or area. We also have a property manager helping. But it’s not easy.

M. is thinking he won’t give up practice yet, after all. That’s his thought right now. So it’s looking like we’ll have two residences again: Florida and California.

I think I’m fated to have a logistically complicated life.

We talk about our vacation at Baur B&B every day.

“I was only half kidding when I said let’s stay here until the money runs out,” M. said last night.