Confession of the Week - our dog has a heated dog house. That would be the dog house with carpet on the floor and big cushy dog bed. The one that has the nice shingled roof. Yes, the one we plan on painting the same color as our house and the one I'm looking for dog house-sized shutters to match our shutters.
Even with all that, she is not happy. She wants to be inside. All the time. She sits out on the back porch and whines to come in, ignoring the backyard full of squirrels to chase. Of course this all goes back to her days of being a little homeless pup on the streets of Bakersfield. (Cue up the tiny little violins - I'm a sucker for making excuses for her being a little, shall we say, attached to us.)
We had to leave her for two days in a row in some drenching rain while we were up at our assembly in Yuba City. We thought of sewing her a little service dog vest and taking her with us, we could say she's there to keep Ernst's blood pressure down. But if she ran into another service dog and went into her usual Molly-must-attack-all-breathing-things-with-four-legs, that would probably raise even my low BP. So we loaded her up with warm words of encouragement, made sure her dog house heater was working and hoped for the best.
Saturday went fine. She was quite wet but her amazing fur with the Teflon qualities cleaned up nicely and she spent the evening in with us. Her bed by the fire seemed to make up for a day left out in the rain. So today, we headed off again to Yuba City feeling all would be fine. Our first hint that it stormed really badly here was that our jade plant "Landon" on the front porch was knocked over and lost a big branch. I planted it the day my friend gave birth to her son by the same name. Lesson learned - don't ever name a plant, especially a plant that can freeze or fry or get knocked over and lose branches. There is way too much pressure to keep it alive.
The dog was a mess - a wet muddy mess. The sliding glass door had streaking wet and dirty paw prints all over it going up quite high, telltale signs of a dog that had been desperate to come in. I called the neighbor to ask how bad it had been. Horizontal rain, fierce wind and thunderstorms. I think Molly pulled a Marly and went a little nutty with the storm. She's all dried off now, lying in front of another fire. So much for our street-wise tough rescue pup; the heated dog house now needs a rain guard, calming music and a fireplace insert.
Even with all that, she is not happy. She wants to be inside. All the time. She sits out on the back porch and whines to come in, ignoring the backyard full of squirrels to chase. Of course this all goes back to her days of being a little homeless pup on the streets of Bakersfield. (Cue up the tiny little violins - I'm a sucker for making excuses for her being a little, shall we say, attached to us.)
We had to leave her for two days in a row in some drenching rain while we were up at our assembly in Yuba City. We thought of sewing her a little service dog vest and taking her with us, we could say she's there to keep Ernst's blood pressure down. But if she ran into another service dog and went into her usual Molly-must-attack-all-breathing-things-with-four-legs, that would probably raise even my low BP. So we loaded her up with warm words of encouragement, made sure her dog house heater was working and hoped for the best.
Saturday went fine. She was quite wet but her amazing fur with the Teflon qualities cleaned up nicely and she spent the evening in with us. Her bed by the fire seemed to make up for a day left out in the rain. So today, we headed off again to Yuba City feeling all would be fine. Our first hint that it stormed really badly here was that our jade plant "Landon" on the front porch was knocked over and lost a big branch. I planted it the day my friend gave birth to her son by the same name. Lesson learned - don't ever name a plant, especially a plant that can freeze or fry or get knocked over and lose branches. There is way too much pressure to keep it alive.
The dog was a mess - a wet muddy mess. The sliding glass door had streaking wet and dirty paw prints all over it going up quite high, telltale signs of a dog that had been desperate to come in. I called the neighbor to ask how bad it had been. Horizontal rain, fierce wind and thunderstorms. I think Molly pulled a Marly and went a little nutty with the storm. She's all dried off now, lying in front of another fire. So much for our street-wise tough rescue pup; the heated dog house now needs a rain guard, calming music and a fireplace insert.
