BAD DOG!

How long after your dog rains down destruction can you chastise him? Our somewhat crazy ass dog Zeus destroyed the carpeting in front of my daughter’s bedroom door. And when I say “destroyed”, I mean ripped it to shreds. He tore it into pieces, including the matting and I’m sure he would have torn up the sub-flooring too if his nails had been strong enough. (Note to self: cut dog’s toe nails to the quick before leaving on vacation)

While we were away my daughter was babysitting both dogs. Hers is the prissy little Chihuahua who hates my husband and ours is a lab/chow mix who’s afraid of his own shadow. The dogs aren’t used to being left alone for long periods of time anymore since I was laid off a year ago and stay home most of the time now. My daughter however works 8-5. She put her dog, Dolce, inside her crate (where she stays when we’re not home) and closed her bedroom door. She left our bedroom door open so Zeus could go lay either on his bed or ours.

Obviously, he didn’t want to lie down. Being separated from Dolce for nine hours must have been too much for him, so in order to get to her he figured he’d just dig his way under the door and into her room. Have to give him credit for effort. There’s no more carpet blocking the door. A few more hours and he probably would have eaten the door itself. Luckily my daughter came home before he could begin his teeth action.

We now have options. Get the carpet patched...we know a guy who does this. Cut away the torn up part...and cover it with a throw rug. Replace it with a wood threshold...four feet wide. I think we’re going to opt for the wood. He WILL be alone in the house again and Lord knows I don’t want to feel like killing him, should he annihilate repaired carpeting. Using throw rugs seems so “grandma-ish” (I remember round area rugs in front of doors in old people’s homes). He may scratch the hell out of the wood, but Pergo is pretty sturdy and he hates the wood floors downstairs, so hopefully he’ll be so terrorized by the slippery surface he’ll leave the area alone.

Well a person can dream can’t they?

HAIR TODAY, PROBABLY NOT GONE TOMORROW

For the past two days I have spent about an hour each day standing in a pile of hair. No, this isn't some kinky new turn-on I've discovered. It's simply that time of year when my dog leaves hairballs all over the house. Hair falls off him by the handful.

I hate seeing this hair all over, so the elimination process must begin. The excess hair doesn't bother my dog, but the removal of it does. I have to sneak the FURminator DeShedding Tool out of the closet and then try to coax the dog over to me. He always gets this look in his eyes and stands staring at me. "Why is she using the high pitched baby choocie coo voice? She must be going to do something I hate." He'll then tuck his tail between his legs and try to slink away. At which point I will grab him by his collar and drag him to the grooming area, as he sits and tries to make this process as difficult as possible.

I am always in awe of how much hair I remove from him. I think I could probably comb him every day and still get grocery bags full of hair. I'm a recycle type gal and hate to throw stuff away, so I'm considering storing the bags of hair in our garage over the summer. Then this fall I'll begin working on creating Christmas gifts for friends and family. Oh, oh, I can see people crossing my name off their Christmas gift exchange list already. HA, SWEET!