28 square feet...
Of pee. Eleven sheets of La Nación, saturated. (See previous post for context)
She'd been in the house all day - the whole bath/haircut thing was finished by 9:00 a.m. and she had only left her beloved cardboard box once, and then because I lifted her out so I could put a blanket in. So I tried to get her to go out before I left the house, but she politely declined. And I didn't think I'd be out long, but it turned out to be an hour and a half. So I came home to 28 square feet of pee.
Now let's zoom out slightly to get the rest of the picture.
I know I didn't mention this yet, but we did end up bringing the street dog home. She worried me at first because it looked like she might not get along with the others, but she's been here for six days now and it looks like it's going to work out. Since Emily is Robin's middle name I named the new dog Elizabeth, which is Julia's. I'm calling her Ellie.
So that makes four dogs, three of which need to be tied up when I open the gate to drive in or out. They don't mind, because they know from experience I'll unhook them if I'm going to be gone more than 15 minutes. (I leave them tied up if I'm just going to take Robin to school or pick her up.)
Remember Scruffy's personality profile? He's a Perpetual Ecstatic. I have yet to ever complete the Exit Sequence (Tie dogs, Open gate, Drive out, Close gate, Untie dogs) without dusty doggy prints on my jeans.
Oh, did I mention? The rainy season started this month. It's not dusty anymore.
This evening when I got home the dogs were waiting at the gate for me to tie them up again. I really don't know how he did it, but in addition to covering my hands with mud and slobber, Scruffy jumped up on the gate three separate times in such a way as to spray mud on my face. How is that even possible? [The upside: The kids liked my 101 Dalmations joke.]
Then I got inside to discover 28 square feet of pee. [The upside: I actually had 11 sheets of newspaper available to me. This is not always the case.]
Oh, and it was a little past Feeding Time at the Zoo, so as soon as the door was shut with all humans inside and all dogs (with their attendant muddy paws) outside, the parrot started shrieking. [The upside: Parrots really do shut up if you cover the cage.]
Everyone should have pets.
2 comments:
Forgive me for noticing, but you need more pets like I need a high-powered stun gun shoved up my nostrils. I think your solution is the free online classifieds with Craigslist. Some sucker will be hapy to take those animals off your hands.
Before you indignantly dismiss this idea out-of-hand, you owe it to yourself to sit back, breathe a few deep breaths and imagine ... just IMAGINE .... the possibility of a piss-free floor.
Although your idea is not without a certain allure, really it's all about the martyrdom. My kids potty trained in carpeted rentals, but this is ceramic tile in my own home. It was totally worth clearing up the mess, just so I could run upstairs and complain to my friends and family and, apparently, at least one complete stranger. (Now if it starts happening on a regular basis...craigslist, you said?)
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