Gone to the dogs....

I didn't become a dog owner until I was 50. By then I had figured out that after 44 years of being owned by cats and 31 years of dating or being married to men that I liked woman and dogs much better.

If I had known how amazing it was to experience unconditional love from a four-legged furry mass of love, I would have had less ex-husbands which would of been good for all involved.

After a long day of working I come home to a welcome committee at the kitchen door. Chloe walks up to me with her latest favorite toy of the moment to show me what she has. Fast Eddie and Chancey are bouncing and making funky little sounds at me. Heaven!

Now having four dogs ranging from barely furry at 30 lbs. to extremely furry at 55 lbs. isn't without its drama and lots of work to maintain them, our house and our sanity. Tyler Noel is the fourth dog and not ours but he is with us every day and has a occasional sleep over with us.

So an average day consists of walking them for about a mile (thanks Mary), feeding them twice a day which is drama in itself. I could write an entire posting on that alone. Letting them in and out to go pee, to bark at passing motorcycles (thanks Chancey), to howl(a group event) at Yogi, our neighborhood black bear. Breaking up fights on whose toy that belongs to at that moment in time. Which means yelling over and over at Fast Eddie because he is our trouble maker and bully of the group. Trying not to break your neck as you step on Mr. Dinosaur (hard plastic with sharp spikes) and the story goes on and on.

I can't believe the amount of dog laundry we do each week. There are dog towels to wipe off their muddy feet when returning from the dog park. There are throws to protect and cover the couch and beds. There are blankets that we wrap ourselves in while watching TV while the dogs lie on top of us. Then there are the blankets that each dog gets covered with at bedtime. Oh, did I mention that Fast Eddie doesn't like to experience cold or rain so he has an assortment of dog coats he can choose from.

Today is a great example. While at my Saturday part-time job, I get a call from Mary. Fast Eddie just came in from outside stinking of something he rolled in and part of it is smeared on his leg. Minutes later he promptly throws up large quantities of grass all over our living rug. So between giving him a bath and cleaning up the carpet more towels that will have need to be cleaned.

It is now 7:30 p.m. and all is quite in doggie land, I’m going to go watch a DVD and lounge with them before letting them out at 10 p.m. for one more pee. Then each one gets a night night treat which means making sure that Fast Eddie doesn’t eat Chancey’s treat. Then they all get tucked in and everything is quite until something goes bump in the night.

More later…