Not a Dog's Best Friend

Mia's best friend, Grady, is spending his owner's 2-week vacation at my house. I was thrilled that she waited until Grady's diarhhea cleared up before booking her trip, but not so thrilled when she showed up with the 7 medications he takes daily!

The sick half-laugh escaped before I could censor it, along with the fervent plea, "You're kidding, right?" No, she wasn't kidding, and I'm anxious about what will happen when I give Grady the last of the diarhhea medicine tomorrow as she won't be back until the 12th.

Grady's a good dog and gets along well with Mia, who grooms him, sleeps alongside him, makes him go outside and chases him around so he gets exercise. Grady likes the stash of bones in the wheel-around container, and he happily spends hours gnawing and chewing. When Mia takes an unattended bone, Grady growls and comes after it, but Mia drops that one and picks up the one Grady has abandoned. Grady is pooping in the paver patio area, which is not allowed, but I've seen Mia walking him to the dog run to do his daily. Grady doesn't seem to care where he poops. Not a huge fan of poop patrol, I've ignored the piles in the dog run, but am keeping the piles cleaned up in the paver patio area to encourage Grady not to revisit that area.

Grady is also on a special diet, and if he doesn't eat what the vet has prescribed, the diarhhea becomes overwhelming. Therefore, I cannot put Mia's food out each day as she is a self-feeder and munches whenever she feels the need. If Grady's on a diet, Mia also has to be on a diet, which is causing some hardship as I'm only feeding them every 12 hours. When Grady gets his food, he's like a shark in the midst of a feeding frenzy, growling and shoveling the food into his mouth as fast as he can get it out of the bowl. If I open the fridge, Grady comes at me like a Kamikazi pilot after an American warship. God forbid I drop a crumb on the floor as the dogs both go after it as if their lives depended on it.

The other day, I was gone for several hours. When I returned home, the large kitchen waste basket was on its side and trash strewn from one end of the house to the other. Since Mia has NEVER gotten into the trash, I knew it was Grady's work. I let him have a barrage of "bad dog" messages and pissed off attitude as I cleaned up the mess and mopped the floor. Both Mia and Grady have raided the wastebaskets before if I haven't been home with them, but I never dreamed that they would topple the trash can!

Yesterday, when it was time for me to leave for the ortho appointment, I put a dishpan on top of the trash, along with some metal items that would make noise if they approached the trash can. It was trash day and I had emptied the can the night before, so I left confident that I would not have a repeat of the other day.

Wrong. They turned the trashcan over and spread what little there was throughout the house, along with the dishpan of metal noisemakers. Guess it didn't bother them to deal with the obstacles to get at the prize! Again, much yelling and another floor mopping from me didn't seem to phase either one of the dogs.

This will be Grady's last (extended) visit with me as he's become too high maintenance and too destructive. He's the bad-boy friend who somehow convinces Mia to do that which she would never do without his influence. The pill regimine simply puts his daily care over the top, so I will not be available for extended care in the future.