Where Have My Puppies Gone?

4/19/2018

As the girls are both turning 3 in a month, I've noticed things slowing down. Now, I don't want to jinx myself, but, shoes and/or slippers remain untouched while they are on the floor!  This is huge.  In the past three years, countless pairs of slippers and the occasional shoe have gone to their premature deaths.

Is there some kind of personal clock inside a dog, that tells them they are big girls now, and they need to behave?  Perhaps.  At this point, all the gates are down, except for one gate blocking the formal dining room, which is anything but formal.  The dining room is where Benjamin stashes his toys, books to be read are on a curio cabinet, and stuff like that.

Now, I suppose that Bella would still enjoy taking outside, paper towels, paper plates and/or paper cups.  Because I'm not sure about paper products, used plates and/or cups, are still put out of her reach!

There is only one more problem to solve, and that is, not going out the doggy door.  Why do we always seem to get a dog that prefers concrete (basement floor), over going outside to do their business?  I could understand this behavior, if it had snowed so much that the doggy door was blocked, but that hasn't happened this winter.  In our bedroom, each night I put down a folded up towel, actually a towel sheet, on the floor.  One or both of the girls use that towel during the night, and I'm okay with that.  It's super easy for me to pick up the towel in the morning, and put down a new one at night.  So, I know they are trainable in this area.

While everyone thought Jeff and I were out of our minds, when we rescued the girls, we continued to believe, and we were right, that eventually they would outgrow being a puppy.  To be fair, it was difficult at times, to think that the girls would live long enough to become dogs!  And, yet they have. 😃😃😃

Saturday, is Benjamin's 10th birthday, and he's having a birthday party.  Under normal circumstances, we would take the girls out there to run and run in his backyard.  But, one of the children that's coming to the party is super allergic to dogs, so if we took Bella out, she would have to stay in a bedroom.  I don't want to do that to her.  I guess, we can leave the girls the partial run of the house, some doors would be shut and some gates would go up. I guess we could take our chances of coming home hours later to the inside of the house still "standing"!!  Of course, if we never try to leave Bella alone in the house, we'll never know if she can or will be good alone.  You have to start somewhere.

Yesterday, I went out with my rollator and walked around the circle in front of our house eight times.  I know that doesn't sound impressive, but for me, that was huge. I'll walk again today, and try to do nine times around the circle.  Baby steps.

Also, yesterday, I started cleaning up one of the spare bedrooms.  Tiring work, but it needs to be done.

It's a gray day here, but the forecast indicates some warmer weather is headed our way.

P