Dakota = Good Dog!

If you get to thinking you're a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else's dog around. ~Will Rogers

So .... things in the house are slowly getting back to normal. I'm completely exhausted but don't have time to rest -- I have a dozen things I wasn't able to do last evening because of our canine company, and ditto this morning.

This is Patience.



Understand: I like her. I really do. She's funny and sweet and she and Dakota are BFFs. But I never realized how much I require my dogs to behave until she visited.

She clearly has a completely different set of rules at her house. She counter surfs (I got down a loaf of bread this morning and then next thing I know -- she's got both paws ON the counter next to me!), she figures she can go anywhere (don't try telling her she can't get on a piece of furniture -- we have couches the pets can get on and one they can't, and even my CAT knows which is which) and do anything. She refuses to sit, lie down, stay or even come on command. She knows what they mean, but will only do them when she feels like it. She and I had a few battles-of-wills last night. I won, but only after much time and determination.

She wouldn't settle down to sleep, which I actually expected. She was "sleeping" with DD and Dakota was with me. DH ended up working most of the night, so was in the living room and got to watch the parade of people and dogs. Every 90 minutes, she wanted to go out. So: bed at 9, up at 10:30, up at midnight and so on. Every noise she heard, she barked. And, at 5:30 she was up for good.

We fed both dogs (separately, as Patience has some food aggression issues) and then walked them in the dark, in the cold, to try to get some wiggles out and let my poor DH sleep (he'd finally gone to bed around 3:30 a.m.).

At 7 a.m., we got dressed and ready to go to the dog park. At 7:15 a.m., as I was outside warming up the car, Patience pooped in three spots on my spare bed and all over the spare bedroom... there were 7-8 piles.

I nearly hit the roof. We'd been taking her out practically every hour ALL FREAKING NIGHT. I told DD to take her out to the car while I cleaned up. My DH, bless his heart, shampooed the carpet for me. My "dry clean only" bed comforter is in the wash (on delicate, cold, low spin) as we speak and I hope it doesn't get wrecked.

The utter chaos made me truly appreciate Dakota, though. Dakota who hasn't pottied in the house since the first week we had her, who sits, stays, comes on command. Who doesn't counter surf, steal food (even when it's down at her level), chase the cat or bark at every noise.

I expected some of that. But it nearly killed me.

Still, I was glad to help my friend. And I'd probably do it again -- but I might stock up on doggie downers. LOL...

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You Are a Kindle

You are a true lover of books and a hardcore reader. You love to get lost in what you're reading. Even though you like spending time online, you know that it can distract you from what you should be doing. You are rather serious and down to earth. You don't give into frivolous notions. If you will truly use a gadget, you'll buy it - but you don't buy anything just because it's the latest and greatest.

Are You An iPad or a Kindle?

Yep -- though I prefer to be called a Nook.

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