My in-laws have been out of town since Wednesday, and we have been keeping their pet. Historically SIL is their default dogsitter, but this was a business trip, so she was with them. In the past when SIL was not available, their old dog went to the kennel; she was kind of crochety (as old dogs often are) and we all agreed that she would prefer the kennel to living with our two hooligans. Did I call my dogs hooligans? Correction: They are angels, and I am so sorry I ever thought otherwise.
The in-laws' old dog passed away this winter, and the in-laws have a new puppy. This morning I was trying to think of a redeeming feature of this creature. (Yes, she is very cute, but cute wore off around Thursday morning.) All I could come up with is, she doesn't run away. She burst out of the screen porch yesterday while the gate was open -- with my own dogs, this would mean 30 minutes of chasing them around the neighborhood. The puppy didn't even notice the gate was open.
This is because the puppy is as dumb as a box of rocks. In addition to being destructive, I have never met a stupider animal. She is five months old, certainly old enough to have some manners, not to mention bladder control. As if. She is crate-trained, that much is true ... she doesn't mess in her crate. (At least, not in that fashion -- but her way of announcing that she is finished eating is to turn her water dish upside-down. Then she sits in the puddle and whimpers. And when the crate is opened, she jumps out and tracks the water all over the floor.) She does pee anywhere else, though. She doesn't even seem to notice that she is doing it, just sprinkles everywhere.
I really cannot imagine sending my pet to stay at someone else's house when I know that my pet is not housetrained. We spent three nights in our house with no power the winter our dogs were puppies, because we didn't want to risk them making a mess at the in-laws' house. And we would have been there to keep an eye on them! The demon is just badly-behaved all around. On Friday morning, I was already running late from cleaning up her morning pee-stream when I had to go outside to bring her in - because she won't come in when called - and she jumped up all over me with her dirty wet feet, so I had to go change my clothes.
She has tormented our pets to the last ounce of sanity. She stands and barks at the dogs incessantly when they don't want to play with her or she tries to start smack by biting their legs or the ruff of their necks. Every time she spots Pretty Kitty, she tries to corner her. As Pretty Kitty has all her claws and suffers no fools, I have repeatedly warned the demon that she is going to lose an eye if she doesn't watch out. You would think the hissing and claw-swiping would be instructive, but evidently not.
We are all at our wit's end. Mr. J took Black Dog with him for two hours of errands yesterday because Black Dog was about to lose his mind. Meanwhile, I took Brown Dog out into the front yard to lie under the tree while I gardened, so she could get some peace and quiet. Today I am fortunately at work, because I really want Mr. J to be the one to tell his parents about how the week has gone and why we won't be watching the demon the next time they go somewhere. As soon as she leaves today, we will have to scrub down every inch of the hardwoods and powerwash the screened porch.
No comments:
Post a Comment