July 14, 2017

• Adventures with Jack & Boo

  My daughter is off having an adventure and making the world a better place, and while she's gone I'm taking care of her three-year-old dog Jack. He is usually a very sweet-tempered animal, but occasionally lapses into puppy mode, earning him the nickname Jack the Ripper. My dog Boo, meanwhile, is a cranky old guy who occasionally, spitefully takes a dump on the kitchen floor. Maybe I should have named him Poo.

  I ran an errand today and was gone for about an hour. Most of that time was spent at Meijer picking up produce for tomorrow's planned jambalaya and green beans supper. I noticed the dog toys were on a BOGO sale, so I grabbed two of those little wiener dog toys just in case Jack hadn't destroyed all my kitchen rugs (which cover some of the ripped up linoleum that happened about the time Jack came into our lives) and Boo hadn't pooped in his usual corner of the kitchen. I walked in the back door with my one bag of groceries and a tuna sandwich from Subway. The dogs had been good! My rugs were intact and there was no nasty surprise in the corner, so I gave each of the dogs a new toy - a purple one for Jack and a blue one for Boo. They ran off, happily squeaking their new toys while I unwrapped my sandwich and put it on a plate with a few chips and a handful of grapes. I walked into the living room and sat on the couch to read while eating my lunch and suddenly realized it had gotten quiet. I looked over to where Jack was lying in his bed with his toy and saw this:

  

  That's some major stink eye! He was staring at my sandwich and sat there, glaring at me, until the last bite went into my mouth. When I got up to put my plate in the sink, Jack followed me to the kitchen and indicated that he wanted to go outside, so I clipped him to the leash attached to the cable in the backyard and returned to the couch and my book. This is what I found in the living room:

  

  Boo must have ALL the toys! I'm surprised he waited until Jack was safely outside to steal his toy; he usually just grabs it away from him. After a few minutes, I let Jack back inside and of course, since Jack had been outside, Boo had to go outside. So I clipped Boo to the leash and came back into the living room to this:

  

  Jack doesn't need ALL the toys, he just wanted Boo's toy. Sigh. Since letting Boo back inside, Boo took Jack's toy, Jack punked Boo by squeaking an old toy and when Boo ran to take it away from him, Jack grabbed his toy back. Then somehow Jack got Boo's toy again and now they're having a semi-serious tug-of-war over it while the purple toy lays forgotten on the floor.

  

  It's like having a houseful of toddlers.

  What have I learned?

  1. No good deed goes unpunished.
  2. One toy would have been enough.
  3. A tuna sandwich would have been better.
  4. It's impossible to enforce nap time with dogs.
  5. I probably won't finish my book in the next two-and-a-half weeks.

   

   

   

  • 4:03 pm
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