Separation Anxiety

The dog is driving me crazy.

As the weather warms up, I find myself outside more - hanging out clothes, doing odd chores, checking out plants and garden potential, etc.  I would like to take the dog along with me; however, he is a naughty little, poorly trained canine.  If he is not on the leash - he will run off.  And holding onto a leash with one hand makes certain things difficult (if not impossible).  So he must stay inside.

He is not happy about this.

While I am outdoors, I can hear him indoors.  Barking in that high pitched, stressed out bark of his.  Whining.  Howling.  Anything to make his displeasure known. And he keeps it up the ENTIRE time I am outside.  No break.  No rest.  No “oh, she’s really not coming back inside right now - so all this noise is pointless”.  Nope, he just keeps going.  And going.  And going.

I know the dog has some separation anxiety when we leave him.  But this is ridiculous! 

Now I worry that when we leave the house for other things (shopping, church, etc), he is making this fuss the whole time we are gone! Is the entire community having to listen to this anytime we are not home? Are we those people with that dog? 

I’m not sure I want to know the answer to that.

D-O-G Spells

The male offspring has a week off from school for spring break.  Which means someone else gets to help with the usual morning chores, such as taking care of the dog (Yah!)

The other morning I was heading out to the grocery store and knew the dog still needed to do his business.  I also know he goes crazy when he hears the word "out". 

So I say to the male offspring: "Does the d-o-g need to go o-u-t?"

And the dog took off running down the stairs to the back door!  Almost as if he has figured out the whole spelling thing!

Is it possible we have the smartest dog on the block? Probably not!  But I think maybe Martha of the book Martha Blah Blah and the show Martha Speaks! has nothing on him! (come to think of it, he kinda looks like Martha too)

A Little Off

It's just one of those mornings when things seem, well... a little... off.

The dog is pacing and whining to go out.  Despite the face that he has already been out - for a good long time! 

The dog also won't eat his food.

The cats will eat the dog food, and are trying their very best to do just that!

I'm feeling a little ADD this morning.  My mind is bouncing in a dozen different directions.  I feel like there's something I should be doing, but I have no clue what it is.

Because of the bouncing brain syndrome - I can't seem to get anything accomplished.  That's what happens when you can't seem to focus on one thing for longer than 2 minutes!

I am very hungry, but nothing - absolutely nothing - I can think of to eat sounds good.  (maybe the cats are on to something?)

Wait... what was I talking about?

Living Room: Painting

The living room is finally painted!  Whew... that's a lot of work!  Even the dog got a little paint.  ;0)

Loving the pale gray walls and the darker accent on the wall with the fireplace!

Moments In Time: July 8 - 14

The Little Man cutting shoe pieces for SoleHope

Filling orders for Queen B's Busy Work



Where I like to spend my mornings



The grandbaby likes to watch ESPN SportsCenter...



And taking naps with the Oscar dog!

OOPS!  I missed taking a picture on the 13th!!

Girly Bow Flip Flops for Queen B's Busy Work!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/QueenBsBusyWork

Beginning to Feel Better

After I posted about losing The Girls last night, the neighbor that owns the dog came over to talk to The Man of the House.  He apologized several times.  He used to have chickens himself, so he understood how it feels to lose one or more. 

He paid us for the lost birds.  And is going to put in invisible fencing to keep his dog in the yard.  He even said if we wanted to try to call him when we were going to let them out to free roam for a while he will put her up in the house; because he knows once a dog has had the sport of getting a chicken it will keep coming back for more.  I suppose it was the best possible ending to a difficult situation. 

The Man of the House also spoke with our "chicken supplier" today, and we are going to be able to get 3 more birds of the same age at a reasonable cost.  I hope they are as fun to watch and lay as well as the ones we lost.

The last four eggs produced by the girls.

Today Was NOT A Good Day

We lost three of The Girls today.

Due to legal reasons, I can not say the neighbor's dog killed them, because I did not actually see her kill any chickens.  What I can tell you is this:

*At about 2:15 I gathered eggs and let The Girls out to free-roam for the afternoon.  I was excited because there were four eggs today.

*Around 3:45 I heard one of The Girls raising a fuss, so went out to check on them.  At that point I found one dead on the edge of the yard.  Next to the wooded lot between our house and the neighbor's house.  I also heard neighbor's dog running through the woods back toward her house.

*I walked up to the road, where I found a large quantity of white feathers along the edge of the wooded lot.

*Two of my chickens were laying - dead - in their yard.

*Two of my Dominiques were hiding in the bushes by the house terrified.  It took me, The Princess, and The Little Man a good while to get them back in the coop.  The remaining Americauna must have found herself a very good hidey hole.  I was convinced she was dead also, but she came home sometime later.

*While trying to get the two chickens I could find at the time into the coop.  I witnessed neighbor's dog chasing one of The Girls in my yard.

I am so sad.  And angry.  I did call Animal Enforcement.  They can't do anything legally because there were no witnesses to how the chickens were killed. 

And (in the immortal words of Forrest Gump) that's all I have to say about that.

R.I.P - Svetlana and Medusa.  They were my two best layers and they will be missed.  I'm still not sure if the deceased Dominique is Miss Muffett or Amelia.

Yell

I'm a yeller.  I yell.  I yell A lot.  I probably yell much too much.  I doubt my family would argue with that.

Most recently the dog was the object of my raised voice.  His boy had gone across the street and he was not happy to have been left behind.  He made this clear by his insistant whining.  Which led me yelling at him to "Stop that NOW!"

**in response to a prompt from The One Minute Writer **