It was fate, I think.
The number of days out of the last 3 months that I have left work for lunch later than noon= maybe 2.
One of those two days was last Thursday.
I came home for lunch around one o'clock. My neighbor was pulling up behind me. I get out of my car and start walking to the front door. I turn and give a friendly smile to my neighbor as he walks to his front door.
Then it happened... he yells to me, "Wanna dog-sit?"... I awkwardly chuckle (the kind of chuckle that one does as a stall tactic to assess the situation). "Yeah, sure" I respond, before having a flashback to the day before when my neighbor mentioned he was going on a fishing trip this weekend.
Oh, crap. He was being serious about the dog sitting.
Soon, we no longer have the comfort of our building separating us and he is telling me some story about how his fishing plans were all messed up, his daughters grandfather something or other, and with his taxes this week, and something about a dog kennel... and not being open on Sunday.
As you can see, I wasn't much listening to why he needed a dog sitter and was now thinking of the repercussions of my answer. But how could I have said no and provided a legitimate excuse when the only time I really had to think about it was during the 3 second stall chuckle?
I do a lot of things because of guilt. Not guilt from other people, but guilt from myself. What is the lesson I am recollecting from 9th grade History class... Rome was destroyed from within? I'm pretty sure that my demise will be like that of Rome- destroyed from within. And if I would have said no, I would have felt guilty all weekend and especially on Sunday when I imagined his dog sitting in a kennel not receiving any kind of care or attention.
Well, I have learned my lesson.
No amount of guilt I would have placed on myself could have compared to the frustration of having that dog in our house this weekend.
I don't want to sit here and complain about all of the things that she did to make me hate her, but I will say that I had the utmost patience for the daily poop I had to clean from my carpets. I knew that she was on a different schedule than Sawyer is used to... of course this was something I thought of after I had agreed to watch her. So the unfortunate accidents were predictable.
I even remained calm watching her jump from the floor to the table to my couch. I would come home and find all of the couch cushions awry. After all, she was excited to be in a new place and being cooped up in a house for 8 hours isn't any dogs dream.
And I didn't even yell at her when the first night at our house she thought she needed to sleep on our bed. This is where she sleeps at her house, so how would she know that at my house dogs sleep on floors. Well... on their own beds on floors.
But the first time I began to really loathe this dog was when she decided that one of Sawyer's treats (that he has been chewing on since Christmas) looked tasty. Sawyer walked towards her to try to retrieve it and she growled and snapped at him. He backed away quietly probably figuring it wasn't worth it. Well not this mother bear... I quickly (and maybe a little naively) walked towards her to retrieve the treat only to be given the exact same response. The only reason I was able to save his treat was because she opened her little yapper wide enough while trying to bite me!
Then it was on.
That was on Friday.
I don't even want to relive the rest of the weekend.
I'm just happy that, as of 8:00 last night, peace is back in our home again.
As I type, my easy going pup is lying next to me on the floor. When I get up, I'm sure he will follow me wherever I go. Just happy go lucky. He is such a good dog. And maybe had I not watched the dog from hell this weekend I never would have realized how awesome he is.
He sort of reminds me of Eeyore. Just happy to be here... doesn't get overly excited about much (as in the annoying "jump up to your face and scratch it over and over again" excited that some nameless dogs do). He likes his routine and follows it well. He is just as content being lazy with us at nights as he is when we take him to the park to run around. He is our perfect puppy.
After he is gone, hopefully not for a really long time, I don't know how quick I will be to get another. I wouldn't necessarily consider myself an animal person. Ask anyone who knows me best and I bet they are all pretty surprised that I have a cat and a dog. I'm just not fond of all the mess and the smell and the hair. But I needed something to love and care for. Sawyer continues to fill that need perfectly.
I mentioned in an earlier post that I would post about taking him to the vet. Well to sum it up... I paid over $300 to find out he had a bruised knee that would heal in about 2-3 days. My gut told me to wait a few days and see if he was still limping on it and then take him to the vet. My neighbor (yes, the one with the devil dog) told me that-and I quote- "If you love your pet, you gotta take him to the vet". You never throw the "L" word into the mix with me. I will do just about anything and spend money I don't have if you question my love for something or someone or some pet. And I did. Next time, I will go with my gut. Oh and I've already commissioned Jason to speak up and stop me if he thinks I'm doing something stupid (isn't that why you get married?). Which he did think, but didn't say.
The number of days out of the last 3 months that I have left work for lunch later than noon= maybe 2.
One of those two days was last Thursday.
I came home for lunch around one o'clock. My neighbor was pulling up behind me. I get out of my car and start walking to the front door. I turn and give a friendly smile to my neighbor as he walks to his front door.
Then it happened... he yells to me, "Wanna dog-sit?"... I awkwardly chuckle (the kind of chuckle that one does as a stall tactic to assess the situation). "Yeah, sure" I respond, before having a flashback to the day before when my neighbor mentioned he was going on a fishing trip this weekend.
Oh, crap. He was being serious about the dog sitting.
Soon, we no longer have the comfort of our building separating us and he is telling me some story about how his fishing plans were all messed up, his daughters grandfather something or other, and with his taxes this week, and something about a dog kennel... and not being open on Sunday.
As you can see, I wasn't much listening to why he needed a dog sitter and was now thinking of the repercussions of my answer. But how could I have said no and provided a legitimate excuse when the only time I really had to think about it was during the 3 second stall chuckle?
I do a lot of things because of guilt. Not guilt from other people, but guilt from myself. What is the lesson I am recollecting from 9th grade History class... Rome was destroyed from within? I'm pretty sure that my demise will be like that of Rome- destroyed from within. And if I would have said no, I would have felt guilty all weekend and especially on Sunday when I imagined his dog sitting in a kennel not receiving any kind of care or attention.
Well, I have learned my lesson.
No amount of guilt I would have placed on myself could have compared to the frustration of having that dog in our house this weekend.
I don't want to sit here and complain about all of the things that she did to make me hate her, but I will say that I had the utmost patience for the daily poop I had to clean from my carpets. I knew that she was on a different schedule than Sawyer is used to... of course this was something I thought of after I had agreed to watch her. So the unfortunate accidents were predictable.
I even remained calm watching her jump from the floor to the table to my couch. I would come home and find all of the couch cushions awry. After all, she was excited to be in a new place and being cooped up in a house for 8 hours isn't any dogs dream.
And I didn't even yell at her when the first night at our house she thought she needed to sleep on our bed. This is where she sleeps at her house, so how would she know that at my house dogs sleep on floors. Well... on their own beds on floors.
But the first time I began to really loathe this dog was when she decided that one of Sawyer's treats (that he has been chewing on since Christmas) looked tasty. Sawyer walked towards her to try to retrieve it and she growled and snapped at him. He backed away quietly probably figuring it wasn't worth it. Well not this mother bear... I quickly (and maybe a little naively) walked towards her to retrieve the treat only to be given the exact same response. The only reason I was able to save his treat was because she opened her little yapper wide enough while trying to bite me!
Then it was on.
That was on Friday.
I don't even want to relive the rest of the weekend.
I'm just happy that, as of 8:00 last night, peace is back in our home again.
As I type, my easy going pup is lying next to me on the floor. When I get up, I'm sure he will follow me wherever I go. Just happy go lucky. He is such a good dog. And maybe had I not watched the dog from hell this weekend I never would have realized how awesome he is.
He sort of reminds me of Eeyore. Just happy to be here... doesn't get overly excited about much (as in the annoying "jump up to your face and scratch it over and over again" excited that some nameless dogs do). He likes his routine and follows it well. He is just as content being lazy with us at nights as he is when we take him to the park to run around. He is our perfect puppy.
After he is gone, hopefully not for a really long time, I don't know how quick I will be to get another. I wouldn't necessarily consider myself an animal person. Ask anyone who knows me best and I bet they are all pretty surprised that I have a cat and a dog. I'm just not fond of all the mess and the smell and the hair. But I needed something to love and care for. Sawyer continues to fill that need perfectly.
I mentioned in an earlier post that I would post about taking him to the vet. Well to sum it up... I paid over $300 to find out he had a bruised knee that would heal in about 2-3 days. My gut told me to wait a few days and see if he was still limping on it and then take him to the vet. My neighbor (yes, the one with the devil dog) told me that-and I quote- "If you love your pet, you gotta take him to the vet". You never throw the "L" word into the mix with me. I will do just about anything and spend money I don't have if you question my love for something or someone or some pet. And I did. Next time, I will go with my gut. Oh and I've already commissioned Jason to speak up and stop me if he thinks I'm doing something stupid (isn't that why you get married?). Which he did think, but didn't say.
2 comments:
I love reading your blog. You're hilarious, and I can relate to your experiences. I don't have a dog, I have kids, but I have an Eyeore child and a dog from hell child. Thanks for making me smile......ok, I laughed out loud. :)
love the new design, camille did a great job!
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