Week of the Animal Takeover

Eileen and I are naming this the week of the wild animals. And they are wild! Remember this sweet little powder puff of a puppy? The opinions are quickly changing around here. Of course I love her like a child, (sorry Dog Whisperer), and we have a wonderful time together every day ... well almost every day.

Still sweet, Huh? We were still working on potty training at the time. She had very specific areas chosen as targets. Usually my husband's bath mat, right next to his side of the bed, in his closet.... she still got me too. At this point she hadn't discovered shoes, paper or human food.

Here is the 45 pound version of puppy, Snickers. She has now discovered the joy of chewing. Deer in the yard still scare her, but our older dog is teaching her when to bark and who to bark at. It's a difficult program. We watch her carefully because of the coyote population here which has grown out of control We have counted 10 that probably have dens on our property. Baloney on the need for 3 square miles for each coyote!!

Here is the new ruler of the house! She now weighs 55 pounds and has just turned 6 months old. She loves Dad's recliner, which she sneaks into when he leaves it. Now the good stories start. She is very much into hunting now, invigorating our 13 year old Golden. They are tag teaming the huge squirrel population here. Eileen also has a Golden and a wonderful cat, Chloe, who has been bringing in live mice and playing with them in the house at night. So Eileen & Randy have been playing night games at their house, usually finding mice in the dog food bag. Ugh!! Last week Snickers trapped a squirrel that had run into my workshop through an open door. If I had a video... Ohhh, much moolah! My baby puppy was matching that squirrel jump for jump, over and under, scattering jewelry boxes, ripping through furniture waiting to be refinished, through the shipping area. Dogs barking, squirrel screaming, me yelling for it all to stop. You can't stop a dog on a mission. I finally caught the dog, carried her outside and shut one door, leaving another open for the stupid squirrel.

This morning I went into the shop for something, it looks like a bomb went off. Out of the corner of my eye, I think I see a SQUIRREL, climbing a window outside. I ran over to bang on the window and realized that the rodent with a fluffy tail was stuck in between the screen and the window. It had chewed a hole through the screen from the inside. The thought of trapping the squirrel with a gloved hand while removing the screen simultaneously was a bit daunting. Ahhh, it's an opening window. A couple cranks and the guy fell out the window and was off and running. It was screaming while I was trying to free it, so of course the great hunter ran in to help. Off we went again, dog hunting in and out, round about all of my stacked china, glass, paint, paper, you name it! Nothing broke!! But is does appear that some kind of battle was fought in that room.

We're not done! My husband and I ended up following each other home tonight after work, his on the golf course and mine with Eileen. OK, it's a tie, no one was working. We decided to go out for cheap Mexican tonight, leaving the dogs outside since they had been banished to the garage with the painters here all day. Nice dinner but no dogs when we got home. They always greet us!! Coyotes, squirrel attack, Eileen brought her Kamikaze mice over, or the deer got mad? We finally found them down by the pool, very animated. Our older dog was obviously cheering on the maniac puppy. We ran down and to our horror, the puppy had chased a squirrel into the box that holds the pool cover. OK, the squirrel is in the box, but Puppy has decided that the only way to get in there is to dig and eat through the pool cover. Which she proceeded to do. The cover is guaranteed not to rip or tear even if a large horse stood on it. They didn't mention 55 pound puppies with the urge to hunt. I'm telling my husband that someday she will be a great watch dog.... Right?!

On to a blissful Wednesday. Who's in charge here anyway??