The second day was even more exhausting. The Millers were convinced that Duke was the sole reason Leo couldn’t stay asleep. Every time the house grew quiet, Duke would start scratching at the nursery door, his claws digging deep grooves into the wood. Mark had to physically drag him back to the master bedroom, while Sarah spent hours inside the nursery, rocked by the sound of her son’s inconsolable crying. “He’s stressing the baby out,” Mark muttered, his frustration boiling over.
They began to resent the dog they once adored. Every bark felt like a personal attack on their sanity and their son’s well-being. They hypothesized that Duke was experiencing extreme jealousy over the new arrival, unable to handle the shift in attention. Sarah sat in the rocking chair, staring at the door and listening to Duke’s muffled whines from the hallway.
She felt a growing sense of dread; if their dog couldn’t adjust to the baby, they were going to have to make a choice that neither of them wanted to face.