How to deal: a one part series about my dog-child not speaking to me

I have a problem. You see, I haven't been home for a while, with the whole getting married thing and then honeymooning thing and the still reeling thing from being married to the most amazing person on earth (yes, I am allowed to gush, I am a newlywed) and also still reeling from the thousands of kilometres we did cross-country. I cannot wait to share my views of beautiful South Africa with you.

But look, right now I am reeling and tomorrow will officially be my first Saturday at our house in over a month. This means that you will find me probably on the couch with Mila. Besides for the hour or two we will be showing our garden cottage to potential tenants. (Something that honestly scares me, because I don't know any of these people and what they are capable of. What if one of them is just using the excuse of looking at the flat to gain access to our house, and they will tie us up and clean it out? And I don't mean clean it out as in making it look neat. This is a genuine thing in South Africa, skelms are clever.)

Back to Mila. New here, and don't know who I am talking about? Well, she is my dog-child, along with her brother Jethro.

You can read more about them here:

All posts about Mila

All posts about Jethro

But here are some pics so you know what they look like. As you can see, they are quite spoiled. And this might be the contributing factor as to why Mila is not speaking to me.

For the time I was away, I had to let them stay with my parents, who spoiled them just as much as I do, letting them sleep inside with them all day. But Mila must think that I have abandoned her, because when my dad dropped them off the other morning, she was sullen. She didn't want to look at m, she wasn't excited to see me -even though she was crazy excited to see Flip. She doesn't want to play all the games she and I used to play - like her trying to kill my hairdryer when I'm blowdrying my hair, or the hide-and-seek game we play in the corridor of the house. She ignores me when I call her and no matter how many beenos and treats I give her, she doesn't even want to wag her tail.

I'm reckoning she needs some defrosting and that's exactly what I intend to do tomorrow. I will just sit with her and chat with her until she starts responding. Have you ever had a situation like this? What do you think I should do?

I just want to see her smile again.