We have 5 dogs in our house this week. Yes, you read that right f-i-v-e. Two are ours, two belong to one friend, 1 to another friend.
Sandis is pretty sure she's in heaven. What could be better than five dogs? She says eight dogs would be better. I asked why eight, why not 10 or 75? Well, apparently eight is the perfect number to fit in our house and for each of them to still get plenty of attention. And here I thought the answer to the meaning of life was 42 and it is really 8.
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And five isn't really too bad. There are just a few small glitches in the system.
Like walking. It is difficult to walk across any room of the house, especially the kitchen. Whenever you stand up, one of the dogs is bound to think that means something exciting is imminent. And if one dog thinks so, well, who would want to be left out of that fun thing, whatever it is! So you have at least 4 dogs milling around you like a small tornado as you try and maneuver about.
If by chance *all* the dogs stay lying down, you have the dog gauntlet to walk through. So far I haven't stepped on too many tails or toes. I try really hard not to - I do dogs, I do! And I always tell them I'm sorry if I do step on them, with a little pet to make it all better. They all seem to have forgiven me, instantly.
You know how you can't go to the bathroom alone when you have kids? Imagine that with five dogs. You are sitting there so you must want to pet them, right? Pet me! Pet ME! No, pet me!! Seriously dogs, I just want to pee.
Another interesting thing, feeding time. All the dogs are so excited when it is meal time! They jump and twirl and slobber and get just sooooo excited that you can't move to actually get to their food. Of course, the delay makes them MORE excited which makes for MORE delay...you can see the problem. And then there are the different feeding styles. Our two dogs and Ollie are more of the "cat style." The "oh I am SO EXCITED you are feeding me! Ok, now that I'm fed, we can move on. Eat it? Well, we'll do that later." Whereas Sam and Taylor are your traditional dogs, "food, food, FOOD!!! <gulp> Is there more? Can I have yours? Oh, yours is gone too. Let's go check on those cat-dogs." Separating all the dogs at feeding time is paramount.
Otherwise, they have all been enjoying things, more or less. Tonks is over the moon to have other dogs to play with, hooray! Sirius is sure we have done this because we hate him. Dogs are not his thing, despite the fact that he *is* one. Ollie is a bit afraid of being stepped on, I think, and spends a good deal of time in his (open) crate observing and wagging. Taylor often looks at me as though she is sure she's done something wrong. You know, those guilty dog eyes. I don't know why, we've not said a angry word to her. Maybe it's just that we aren't her people and she's SURE she's done something wrong to deserve this dog prison away from her people. Sam thinks he's at the spa. He has decided that the kiddie sandbox-turned-pool is his personal space. He gets his soak, his walk, his food, personal attention...this is the life!
Though it's been a bit crazy, I'll be a little sad when they all leave. It's nice to have so much unconditional love in one place, especially when that place is your home :)
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