Dog Sitting

Brittany and Dan weren’t able to see his parents over the Christmas holidays and had planned on visiting them in February. (Dan works most Saturdays so scheduling weekends away is hard.)

In mid January they started planning the trip beginning with what to do with their two dogs. They had had a bad experience with the kennel the last time they left them and Brittany couldn’t find anyone she trusted to come and stay with them.

After talking to John… or maybe I didn’t ask him, I forget…. I called Brittany and said, “It’s far enough out that we don’t have plans yet for that weekend. We can come watch the pups.”

Then we went through all the “Are you sure?” and “You don’t have to!” and “It’s no big deal!” and “It will be fun!” comments.

It really worked out well. John ended up working with one of his sales guys in Charleston that Friday so we were able to get to her house by late afternoon to let Charlie and Ava out in the yard to run a bit before heading downtown for one of my favorite Charleston events, the monthly Art Crawl.

Usually the dogs have the run of the house when Brittany and Dan are out, but she was concerned about them running out the front door when we came in, so told us to keep them in the master bedroom whenever we weren’t there and overnight.

The first night everything went smoothly. The next morning when I opened their bedroom door they knocked me over heading to the back door, but turned around, taking a flying leap to lick my face “good morning” before heading out to take care of business.

We were in and out that day, so lots of luring them with treats up to the bedroom. (At least they were getting exercise going back and forth.)

That night however, after cuddling with them on the couch watching a movie we practically had to carry the lab, Ava, upstairs to go to bed. (And she weighs 70 lbs.)

About thirty minutes later I heard her whining. On and on and on. I got up to let them both out again, then tried to get them to go back upstairs. They were having none of that! So I said, “OK, your mom lets you sleep on the sofa during the day. You can just stay down here for the night.” I pointed to it and they walked over, turned to look at me with cocked heads and I said, “Lay down.”

Without waiting to see if they did or not (and pretty sure they didn’t) I turned off the light and started upstairs. As I got to the guestroom where I assumed John had been sleeping through all this, I heard him say, “Why are you licking my face?”

I turned on the light and somehow Ava had gotten by me on the dark steps and jumped on top of John and was licking him for all she was worth. I felt something at my ankle and of course little shadow Charlie had followed.

So I caved. I told them they could sleep on the bed with us, but AT THE BOTTOM!

Then I turned off the light, got under the covers, felt Charlie settle at my feet and Ava lay full across my body.

And I at least didn’t move for the rest of the night!

 

 

Puppy Love

I grew up without ever having a pet. We were a family of 5 children and looking back, I’m surprised the subject never came up. But, it didn’t.

By the time I was an adult I just wasn’t all that interested. I would watch people walk their dogs and stand and wait while the dog did his thing and then have to scoop the mess up in a little plastic bag and think “Who would want to do that day after day?”

Brittany’s friend recently bought a two-month-old Jack Russell Terrier. She went with him to pick up the dog from Georgia and emailed me about 20 pictures of Addison (Addie).

She did look tiny and cute.

A couple weeks later the friend was passing by close to Hickory and wanted to stop to introduce us to Addie “while she was still a puppy.”

There had never been a dog in our house before. I have white carpets and white sofas. But, he walked in carrying this tiny little thing that only weighed 2.7 lbs and had huge brown eyes and a tail that wagged a mile a minute and put her in my arms…and I was hooked!

I was surprised by how light she was. She immediately burrowed her long nose into the crook of my elbow and went to sleep. I figured that meant she trusted me. I carried her the whole visit except when I thought she might be thirsty and filled a small bowl of water and stood her on the floor next to it. She drank for several minutes and I found myself entranced watching her! On her 4 little feet she was even cuter than rolled up in a sleepy ball.

I hated to give her back at the end of the visit! The following week Brittany called and said they were going to her friend’s dad’s horse farm the next Saturday and could they spend Friday night with us on the way. I said of course and she warned, “We’ll have Addie.”

I said “Great!” I couldn’t wait to see her again. And when they left her with us to run some errands I got down on my hands and knees to play tug of war with her. Sometimes I just followed her around while she explored. (Even on the white carpets!)

It finally made sense to me why people treated their dogs like family.

I’m not sure if this has made me a dog lover or not, but I do know that this particular dog has totally won my heart!

Pets

Brittany’s fish died. I knew when she told me she got them; they wouldn’t be long for this world. My mom never let us have pets when I was growing up. Now I’m convinced it’s because she knew about the family gene.

We can’t keep houseplants or pets alive. Most of my houseplants have slowly been replaced by artificial. I have a few live ones left and I try to leave them alone. The really sad thing is; some of my artificial plants are even losing leaves!

So even though I read a study that said interaction with pets can positively influence
children's health, emotional development and schooling and that; 40% of kids with pets sought out their pet if they were upset, 40% looked for their pet if they were bored and 85% regard their pets as a playmate, I was always the one Brittany came to when she was upset or bored and I was her playmate. Who needed a dead pet?

A couple times as an adult I did buy fish. I think they are pretty. But, the last time I came home with 2 gold fish I named one Friday and one June and both were gone by Sunday.

Brittany got hers as a door prize at a party her sorority had. She called me all excited about how cute they were and all the little things she had bought for their fish bowl home. When she told me she named them I knew it wouldn’t end well. She named them Pi and Chi because they were from a Greek party. (Get it?)

A few weeks later she texted me that they were floating upside down.

When I called her she was guilt ridden. She said the water had gotten dirty and she thought maybe they ran head first into each other and died from a concussion. I told her I didn’t think so.

I tried to tell her that fish just don’t live very long, without telling her our family has a bad gene. When she finally said, “Well, maybe I won’t get anymore fish.” I thought we were home free. But, then she said, “Really I’d like a dog. I think as soon as I graduate, that’s what I’ll do.”

I have a year to talk her out of that. In the meantime her 21st birthday is coming up Mother’s Day weekend and she’s coming home for it. I haven’t decided exactly what I’m getting her yet, but I know it won’t be alive!