Doggone It

This has been a doggie week, with deposits on the living room carpeting by a dog who refuses to go outside when it's raining, but relishes playing in the sprinklers. Go figure. Mia doesn't get why Daisy hasn't been thrown outside, as she was when she was a puppy in training, but I can only do what I can do without injuring myself. Daisy is scolded, but that does nothing to dissuade her when it's raining. She also poops in the landscaped yard, rather than the dog run, so Mia has joined her in that new habit. Perhaps the good news is that I don't have to walk so far to clean it up? The carpet cleaners are coming this week, and I'll ask them how to keep Daisy from using the carpet as her potty, but nothing I've ever tried in the past has worked, so I'm not hopeful they have a remedy.

We also tangled with two dogs who came thundering toward us from under a slowly- opening garage door when we walked after work on Wednesday. Thankfully, the two men in the garage came to our rescue, but it was frightening! I grabbed the smaller of the 2 dogs, the brown one about Daisy's size, and hurled him off to the side, an action made without thinking, but which bought us a few seconds so the men in the garage could join the fray. The men made quick work of getting their dogs under control and apologized profusely, but it's just what dogs do. After the fight, Daisy strutted her stuff, proud of her aggressive defense of both Mia and me.

The next afternoon, our walk was marked with poop: my dogs' poop. Mia and Daisy never take a dump on our walks, so it was strange to use both the plastic bags I always carry and come up short when Mia did a really big job on someone's front yard. I had to drive back to the property to clean up as I'd already filled the other 2 bags from Daisy's donation. I'm not sure what I fed them that had such a strong reaction to their digestive systems, but whatever it was did a great system cleanse.

A small fluffy white poodle has been terrorizing the neighborhood, this time crawling under the fence next door and entering Brownie's world. Brownie barked his head off, so the fluffy ball got between Brownie's wooden fence and my wire fence, which really ticked off Brownie and also got my 2 girls barking. What a noise! The poodle runs all over the neighborhood, so it could be a stray, but calling the pound is an exercise in futility as what you hear is how short-staffed they are with all the job cuts, not that someone will come pick up the dozen or so stray dogs that roam the neighborhood on a daily basis.

This morning, Daisy did what I call her "searchlight" walk, where she crosses back and forth in front of both Mia and me throughout the entire walk. The problem with this is that I keep tripping over her because she'll stop suddenly right where I'm going to step. To avoid her, I pull up short, and the torn meniscus does not like that kind of sudden halt. I use a short leash to control her, but sometimes that is worse than just letting her roam at the end of the leash.

Life with two dogs is still a work in progress.