Dog Sitters Inc

If you have not already figured it out, we (ok - me and the kids) are suckers for animals and especially dogs. So last week when our neighbor asked if we would be willing to keep an eye on Toby, his yellow lab, this week while he is on a trip, we jumped at the chance. But Toby is not your normal exhuberent lab, he is a "used" dog - which means he was "rescued" by our neighbor and had clearly been abused in his previous life. So Toby is what we call "Timid Toby" - he is afraid of EVERYTHING - the hair dryer, a door opening, you getting up from a chair, a napkin dropping from your lap, etc. So I could not picture this poor dog at a kennel - he would be terrified. So since the only thing he is not afraid of is his BEST friend - Daisy Mae - we happily agreed to help!

So Monday was his first day under our care. I had to go to work that day, so I decided to leave both dogs together in our backyard. My thought process was that it would be raining and they could be in our garage together out of the rain. If I left Toby in his yard, he does not have access to the garage and I worried he would be out in the rain....what was I thinking? He is a labrador and rain does not matter and apparently neither does mud. When Jim arrived home on Monday nite, instead of being greeting at the back door by two yellow labs, he was greeted by what looked like 2 chocolate labs. YES! You guessed it - they spent the whole day wrestling in the rain and in the mud bog created by the rain in our backyard! There is literally mud splatters all over my office window and the sliding glass door. They were COVERED in mud - brought a new look to the saying "happy as a pig in mud!".

We couldn't let either of them in like that nor could we put Toby back in his house to sleep for the nite. So Jim and I donned our "foul weather gear" and began the process of washing 2 very dirty dogs in the front yard. It was easy cleaning for Daisy Mae - she just stands that and gets a bath. Toby was another story --- he wanted NOTHING to do with this. Remember how he is afraid of everything? Well...add to the list: the hose, a bucket, a bottle of shampoo and a towel! It took me 40 minutes to get him cornered and on a leash so I could drag him to the front yard to be bathed. Once we got him there, he did ok. We scrubbed him up, dried him really good and sent him home to bed. I am pretty sure he passed out after spending the whole day wrestling!

We figure he will lose 10 pounds while his owner is gone....between the excercise and the constant fretting he is doing.