Canine analogies

I was thinking about canine relationships we've had, past an present. Do you remember those logical analogy questions from the SATs? "A is to B as C is to ____". You figure out the relationship between A and B and then apply that relationship to multiple choice pairs of words and choose the one that had the same relationship. I sort of liked those questions but I just read that they were removed from the SATs as being irrelevant to success to a college or work environment. Maybe so, but I rather enjoyed them and I thought of one pertaining to dogs we've had, past and present. It goes like this:

Cabell is to Gypsy as Serena is to Della. Unless you've known our dogs over a long period this may not make much sense, but bear with me and I'll try to explain.

I guess the easiest way to describe it would be simply to say that Cabell was Gypsy's sidekick, but that's a pretty shallow analysis. Cabell was less than a year old when we got him and he was male, so Gypsy accepted him. Being a pup, Cabell didn't know that Gypsy was Queen of the Fucking Universe so he didn't show her the deference that other dogs did to the very serious and stern female shepherd dog who was Alpha Female of the household. He was the only dog who could grab her playfully and provoke her into playing with him. He was the only dog I remember Gypsy playing with, ever. 

Gypsy was a very serious dog. She was completely devoted to me and she understood her

job as being to keep order among the pack and to keep all the foster dogs in their place.

Cabell HATED having his picture taken but he wasn't really a shy dog. 

He was fun and goofy, and he loved to play. 

Cabell would play with anyone but Gypsy only played with Cabell.

Cabell was part Saint Bernard so he had a double coat, 

but his top coat was about the color of Serena.

Just as Cabell was the only dog who could get Gypsy to play, Serena is the only dog who can provoke Della into play. Serena can poke and paw at Della in a way that no other dog would dare. No one challenges Della and, except when we've had a pup who didn't know any better, no one tries to play with her unless she instigates it. When Della wants to run and play, she hunts up Serena, no other dog will do. 

Serena is the goofy type of Dane. 

Della is a very serious dog much of the time.

It's not a perfect analogy perhaps. Cabell was responsible for forging the relationship between him and the more dominant Gypsy. In the case of Serena and Della, it was the more dominant Della who arrived and decided that Serena would be her best friend and sole playmate.