Deja Vu

I've done this before, and I didn't like it the first time. When my oldest son, James, was 16 a stray Lab, who we called Sarge, "followed him home". Shortly after Sarge came into our lives, James' Bi Polar disorder erupted, along with a previously hidden felonious streak and he was sent to a county "reform school". Guess who got responsibility for Sarge? Yep. Me. Sarge is no longer with us, and looking back I wouldn't trade that time with him, but its not something I want to repeat.

Move foreward seven years. Nineteen year old Kyle (who has never been in trouble in his life)claims Meeko. Two weeks later, out of the blue, he is arrested and charged with a crime, leaving the rest of us scrambling to try and clear his name and get him released. Guess who got responsibility for Meeko? Yep. Me. Sarge was an adult dog who spent most of his time outdoors. Meeko is a puppy, who badly needs housebreaking, among other things.

To her credit, Libby was easily house broken. (One less thing). We used crate training which worked beautifully. She was, however, a little older than Meeko when we began. Additionally, we have other issues that we did not have before.

Although he complains a little, Meeko has become used to being in the crate at night. We normally give him about an hour of play time with Libby in the evening, which wears them both out, so they both sleep most of the night. He does not relieve himself in the crate. In the morning, he makes a beeline for the front door. I open the door, he goes out and pees for days. I praise him and all is right with the world.

Day time is another matter. The crate is in Kyle's room, which is joined to our room by a door. Ed works nights so he must sleep during the day. Confining Meeko to the crate even for short periods during those days is difficult because his barking and whining keep Ed awake.

Even on those days, I work from home, and the computer is in our bedroom (remember I said much smaller house). If I go in to work, Meeko whines and scratches at the door, once again waking Ed. Additionally, I don't want to leave him unsupervised in the house. I need to make sure he gets outside to go, although the connection that has obvioulsy been made between leaving the crate and going outside, has not been made about going outside in general. He may go outside, wonder around, come back in and go on the carpet. He may also go out side, go, come back in and go on the carpet. We're pulling our hair out.

New Beginnings

Since my last post, our lives have been turned upside down. The house I rented for over eleven years was sold from underneath us, and we were suddenly faced with the prospect of having to go live with my mother in her one bedroom house. Thankfully, one of my sister's friends heard of our predicament. Her father had a house coming open, and didn't require any kind of deposit. We took it.

Now, we are living in a much smaller house. There is no room for the large kitchen table where we kept Libby confined. Fortunately, the way this house is designed, we can shut all the bedroom doors, and she can have the run of the rest of the house at night. She has actually adjusted quite well, as have the cats. We do have a couple new four legged additions to the family. One is Marshmallow, a large long haired gray and white tom cat, who is a few bricks shy of a load. He kind of came with the house. The other is Meeko, a ten week old Lab mix (a real one this time) who was kind of abandoned.

Ed has stopped saying we should join the circus. Its joined us!