Mindi's Message 7/28
This past week we were asked to dog-sit for my sister-in-law, and we happily accepted. We love dogs, which you may remember from my pre-daughter column writing days, and saw no problem with having a couple more in the house.
I mean, we’ve got Emma, who is 12, weighs about 60 pounds and stays outside; Jake, who is a 10-year-old, somewhat hateful Chihuahua who lives inside; and Daisy, who just turned nine and is the most educated and well-behaved dog in our home.
Last week we inherited temporary custody of Prissy, an older, small dog, and Bella, her 6-month-old, tiny Chihuahua housemate.
What, oh what, could have gone wrong?
Turns out that adding two dogs to a home they don’t know and throwing them in with me, my husband, our crazy 4-year-old girl and three fairly set-in-their-ways dogs turns out semi-normal home into a three-ring circus.
At first the only issue was Emma. Poor Bella, all 2 pounds of her, had probably never seen anything as big as her before. For about the first day she was terrified to go outside, and when we made her go out she spent her time barking at Emma from as far away from her as she could get. So needless to say we either had to spend a lot of time outside or Bella would not.
It was World War III once when Emma walked out of the dark early in the morning and scared Bella. We offer constant and forever apologies to our neighbors for the chorus of barking that followed from all dogs on our property other than Emma. I may have to make cookies.
These were small issues compared to feeding time. You see, our dogs have a routine. Emma gets food first, then Daisy, then Jake. That’s just the way it has been for years and they don’t appreciate changes. But, Prissy and Bella had to be fed too, and had to be fed in a different room so Daisy didn’t turn into a total jerk and take their food.
The first feeding time went magically well, but the second…not so much.
I went to put Emma’s food down and a couple of dogs ran out (can’t even tell you who they were – I lost count), so I couldn’t get it down until they came in. Once all dogs were in, I made the bowls and tried to put them down. Daisy got her bowl first, which Prissy decided to eat. Daisy just watched in horror and looked to me for help. I went to put down Jake’s bowl (which contains medication for his sick, old self). He started eating Daisy’s food instead. I picked up Daisy’s bowl (which she then refused to touch because she was pouting) and tried to feed the two visitors in the kitchen. Prissy wouldn’t come because she wanted Daisy’s food and Bella ran circles around the couch so I couldn’t catch her.
I ended up picking up all the food, putting up a baby gate between the living room and kitchen and stepping over about 12 times with different dogs and bowls of food to get everyone where they needed to be.
It was a workout.
By the end of the week everyone was fine. Daisy may not emotionally recover for a while, but she’ll get there. The only issue we had was with Laney, who became incredibly attached to “that little baby puppy Bella.”
All in all, it was an experience. And maybe we’re gluttons for punishment, because to be honest, we’d do it again. It made a somewhat boring summer pretty interesting. We’ll just plan a little better next time.