Dog Sitting

Sometimes my mouth moves faster than my brain. (OK, most of the time my mouth moves faster than my brain.) But this time it was especially quick.

E has a 3 day trip to Miami and she leaves in the morning. That would be all fine and well, except that she asked me to watch her dog while she was gone. And even that would have been fine if I said something along the lines of "I have two adult cats that have never lived with a dog before." Or "While my backyard is fenced, it's also hilly and there are several places even your husky can get out and I don't want to be responsible for losing your dog."

Even something like "Toby is the sweetest dog I have ever met, but outside from knowing that pooping is only to be done outside, he's completely untrained." would have worked just fine.

Toby is big for a husky. In fact he's big for any breed. He's about 80 pounds, which is sort of amazing since he sheds half his body weight every day. Dog hair everywhere was the first issue to come to mind after agreeing to do this.

And when Toby first sees you his initial instinct is to love you to death as quickly as possible. Remember the Flinstones and how Dino greeted Fred at the door? Consider Toby a furry Dino and you've got the idea. He's big, he's heavy, and he's got non-retractable toenails so you walk away from his hello with scratchmarks, a wet face, and bruises. Toby was never taught how to sit or stay. That was the second issue to come to mind after agreeing to do this.

Toby also loves to play. And if you ignore him he'll simply grab your hand and tug until you play with him. Which means your hands are always wet and pocked with teethmarks. Toby was never taught to not chew on people. That was the third issue to come to mind after agreeing to do this.

On top of that, E has a kitten that Toby loves to play with. Except that this kitten grew up with Toby and knows that Toby won't eat her after he chases her all over the house. Toby, while huge and clumsy and loud, wants to play all the time and this kitten is more than happy to oblige and chew on his ears and ride him like a horse. Toby has to literally sit on the kitten to keep her from wrestling or climbing once he's ready for a break. (Not kidding, have video!)

Now he's going to be stuck with my cats and they don't know that all it would take is a good swat to Toby's nose with their claws to make him stop. Furthermore, even if Oreo does figure that out he is still out of luck since have his front claws. I'm afraid that my cats will either spend the three days sitting on top of my curtains or they will run away and join the circus. That was the fourth issue to come to mind after agreeing to do this.

Finally, Toby believes he's a person and loves to sleep in bed with you. I believe that I needs my space and I have no problems tossing a dog out. That means DQ is going to most likely inherit Toby come nighttime since GB has a loftbed. That should be fun listening to the two of them wrestle and whine (Yes whine, not kidding!) for the covers. That was the final issue to come to mind after agreeing to do this.

To think all this could have been avoided if I said No. And my brain in fact did say No. Unfortunately my mouth said "No problem" first...