Dear Ellie:
Oh dear chocolate lab....you are quite the conundrum in my life. There are moments that I absolutely adore you and can't imagine our family without our fifth member. Then there are moments when I wonder what the h*ll we were thinking and what I am thinking when I seriously consider a second one of you! I fear that we shall always have this roller-coaster love/hate relationship.
...
Alas - Megs
-----------------------
Yes...our dog and I have a love/hate relationship. I never had a dog growing up. Ellie was mostly Dear Husband's idea that I supported because we'd have her while he was gone on deployment. I really consider her more DH's dog than mine but I am the one she follows around the house and whose feet she plants herself at when I stand still for more than 30 seconds. I think she loves laundry time and dishwashing time because she knows she can lean her 70 pound body against my calves for a few minutes and rest. I do find some joy in that.
Then the next moment she's puking because she drank water too fast or I come home to a nasty smell in the garage and quite the disgusting, unspeakable mess spewing from her kennel. Yah...that happened yesterday.
If I had truly committed to the Orange Rhino challenge (not there mentally yet), then I would have failed epically yesterday afternoon. The kids and I had just enjoyed some fun moments driving home and were all looking forward to watching "the funny girl" aka Ellen. That was dispelled immediately upon walking into the garage and smelling then realizing what had happened. I got pissed......FREAKING pissed. (Totally unfair, yes, I know. Poor thing couldn't help it.) It didn't help that I knew Ryan wouldn't be home for another couple hours. I had to wing this on my own.
So I was pissed and Little Man started freaking out. I mean stage 5, earth shattering screams. In the open garage door. In our new neighborhood. At a time when most of the neighbors are coming home from work and various errand runs. Little Miss was the most calm just repeatedly saying "Ellie stinks. Really bad."
When Little Man continued freaking out instead of listening to my plea to go inside while I tried to figure out how to handle it, I reached my max. Embarrassment and frustration and exhaustion set in and I yelled. Big time. Well Little Miss caught part of it as well and started crying. Oh how I wish I could have stood across the street. Not sure if it would have been entertaining or if Child Protective Services would have been on their way!
After I yelled, I moved. I moved Little Man to his room. I moved Little Miss to her room. Both still screaming. I texted Dear Husband to update him. I moved Ellie to the backyard. I moved the kennel to the front yard where I left it for DH to figure out. I then moved boxes, etc that were around the crime scene and cleaned up as best I could. Give me baby poop any day!
See how the hate enters into our relationship?
After aforementioned crisis was cleaned up, I had the latter crisis of two screaming kids to deal with. I got my stuff put away, then went up to get them out of their rooms. They both kept talking about how Ellie stunk and how she shouldn't poop inside. Yes, dear children, I know.
So I finally got Little Man and Miss settled down in front of Ellen with their super processed treats I had promised them - it's Good Friday right? I then opted to sit with them instead of starting dinner. DH came home and cleaned up dog and kennel and the night seemed to right itself (mostly).
The love entered back in as she cuddled under my feet while DH and I watched some shows.
Those damn dogs. They know how to worm their way back into good graces so quickly don't they?
So we are back to the love part. I'm sure within five minutes of letting her in tonight, something will happen. (sigh)
Cheers -
Megs
No comments:
Post a Comment