Dumb Things My Dogs Do - Vol. 2

I have been asked to post another addition of "Dumb Things My Dogs Do," so I thought long and hard, and here is what I came up with (actually just stuff they did this week).

Cooper has decided that his dog bed is no longer a viable option for sleeping in at night.  He starts out in his dog bed and after we get in bed he stands up and starts "fluffing" his bed.  Really he just wads the whole thing up into a ball, so that no one can sleep on it and then climbs in bed with us.  As if to say, "See, I can't sleep on that any more, it's all wadded up.  So I have to sleep with you."

When getting ready to leave in the morning to drive to Wichita for the week, Derby likes to add a little extra to my already busy morning.  Last week he puked three times on the carpet 10 minutes before I was ready to walk out the door.  Just what I wanted to clean up right before I leave town.  And I was dressed up for a meeting that day.  This week, Derby went outside to do his "business" with Cooper first thing in the morning and then disappeared for 10 minutes.  I got to stand outside like a crazy person in my pajamas at 6:45 in the morning yelling for him to come back.  I am positive my neighbors love me.  Later, I left the back door open so the dogs could go out one more time before we left while I was doing dishes.  My two dogs and the neighbor's 100+ pound Mastiff came in the house, party at our house!  The party quickly got busted.

By the way, my neighbor's 100+ pound dog is named Grace.  She is the sweetest dog, plays with our dogs, very friendly.  Makes Cooper look tiny, and he rarely looks tiny.  Here is the sad part, I know the dog's name is Grace, I have not a clue what the actual neighbor's name is.  There is the "Neighbor Lady" on one side and "Grace's Family" on the other.  That is how my husband and I keep it straight.  Sad, very very sad.

It's Fall and the squirrels are back in our yard.  They crawl on the fence, they crawl on our deck, they climb trees, and they climb up the side of our stucco siding.  And since the entire backside of our house is windows, they drive Derby bat-shit crazy.  Every time he sees a squirrel, he looses his mind.  He thinks he is going to catch one, but he is the worst hunter on the planet.  Instead of stalking his prey, he cries and wines and runs as fast as he can, making as much noise as he can towards the squirrels.  They always make it up the tree way ahead of him.  They jump from tree to tree and Derby follows on the ground crying.  Dumb.

Now for an addition of "Dumb Things My Husband and I Do To Our Dogs."

Derby is so squirrel crazy, that he has learned the word for squirrel.  So, we one of us says "Squirrel" he starts running around the house looking for one.  My husband and I may have been teasing him a little too much with this.  The funniest part is when we say "squirrel" in our windowless apartment in Wichita, he still freaks out, but there is no where for him to look for squirrels.  I know we are mean.

Finally, yesterday my husband found this dog toy that looks like a squirrel.  We bought it and brought it home.  We snuck around to the back of the house and positioned the toy on the deck.  Then when we went in the front of the house.  The dogs finally saw the toy on the deck and freaked out.  We let them out and both rushed at it.  Cooper got it first, and was very successful in "killing it."  It only took a couple of hours, but we now have two squirrel toys instead of one, squirrel body, and squirrel tail.  Nothing last long in our house.  And as I walked out the door this morning, I saw that someone had lovingly placed squirrel body on our bed for us, how nice.     

Bag Lady

I think all our traveling (living in two cities) has turned me into a bag lady.  I would like to think of myself as a very stylish bag lady, but bag lady none the less.  At the current time there are 5 suitcases and 3 or more tote bags sitting in our master bedroom.  Why have storage space for all your luggage, when you can just leave it all half packed in your room? 

Between packing a small bag every week for work, and the couple of recent trips we have taken our bedroom has gotten out of control.  Why use the same bag, when you can just drag out another one?  Our room literally looks like the baggage screening area at the airport, and the guards have riffled through our bags.  It is starting to stress me out a little.  I am very lucky to have a husband who hasn't said a word about the mess yet, he also hasn't done anything to fix the mess.  Hmmm, maybe that is why we are so compatible? 

I blame this disaster on my inability to pack light.  What is that?  Who does that?  I need options when I travel.  What if the weather changes, or I don't like what I packed (more likely)?  When I travel in car, and don't have the rules and restriction of the airline industry, I now travel with a minimum of 3 bags.  One for my clothes, one for my shoes, and one for my toiletry items.  My husband on the other hand, packs only what he needs and not an item more.  From the look on his face every time I pack for a trip I can tell that he is very impressed with my packing skills.

This weekend I vow to de-clutter our bedroom, and return all of our luggage to a more suitable storage space. . .at least for this week.  Agggg!