Crooked Pigtails

A cold in December

I am slowly emerging from a congested fog.  Miss A and I spent the better part of this week on the couch reading books and watching way too many consecutive episodes of The Backyardigans.  My house is a complete disaster, I haven't vacuumed in days, it has been even longer since I dusted, and I will get to the accumulated laundry as soon as I can find the machine, which, I believe, is under the pile of whites. 

I did manage to get my holiday cards to the printer last night, thanks to a desperately impromptu after-school photo shoot, during which the dog misbehaved and the girls refused to smile at the same time in any single shot.  Don't even ask me when I think I am going to have time to actually retrieve the completed cards, let alone address and send them.  If you usually get a card from us, we didn't forget you, I promise it's coming, it just may not arrive before February.

But, I digress...

Yes, my house is a mess.  Yes, my cards will be late later than I want them to be usual.  Yes, my "to do" list is about five, full sized, notebook pages, front and back, long.  Yes, the dog just vomited on my laundry room floor (and, yes, he just ate it before I could get the paper towels).  Yes, my Christmas CD's appear to be missing.  Yes, all of our decorations remain in a bin in the basement.  Yes, I had to cancel my hair appointment earlier this week because I was too sick to go, and, yes, that means I will be attending a holiday party tomorrow night looking like an overgrown skunk. 

But, dang nabbit, people, if that photo shoot didn't make me smile.

**photo removed**

The Doggie Hotel

Our whirlwind trip to (and across) New York state necessitated a stay at the doggie hotel for Fenway.  Having no previous doggie hotel experience, we were nervous about leaving him there, and spent the better part of two days figuring out which hotel best fit our needs.  We consulted our veterinarian and we talked with our dog-owning friends.  Finally, we settled on a kennel and made the reservation.

Upon checking Fenway into the hotel, we were greeted with several questions, several available options for the dog's stay.  Among them:

Did we want them to walk him? Ahh...yes!  Of course! Absolutely!  And, good luck with that cause he is not very good on a leash.

Did we want them to feed him their food our had we brought some from home? At first, I thought this was a ridiculous question.  Who drops their pet off for three nights and doesn't bring him his own food?  Then, I noticed the shocked, quizzical expression on my husband's face and realized, we do.  We forgot to bring his food.  We had his bedding, his toys, his treats, even his bowls...but, we forgot to bring his food.  So, umm...your food, please, that would be great.

Did we want him to be bathed before we picked him up?  This one seemed like a no-brainer: he will be in a kennel for three nights, yes, he will need to be bathed.  However, since the fee for bathing the dog was more than the cost of housing him for a night, and since we had no idea what time of day they would bathe him, or the length of time between his return to the kennel post-bath and our arrival to retrieve him, (hence, possibly negating the purpose of said overly priced bath) ...we decided to forgo the grooming and suds him up ourselves when we got him home.

Big mistake.  Huge.

It appears to have rained the entire time we were gone.  The dog was filthy.  They get away with charging so much for the bath because they know that the dog is going to play, dig, run, and roll in the mud for three solid days.  Always, always, pay for the bath.  Yes, if you are neurotic, like me, you will be bathing him again the second you walk in the door, but, trust me, let them get the first few layers of grim out of his fur.

Otherwise, he seems no worse for the wear.  His tummy is a bit off today but I am thinking that that is due to the different food.  Please, God, let that be because of the change in his diet.  Oh, and he had a tick on him!  Just crawling around on his back, it hadn't attached yet.  I was pretty freaked out about the tick.  I understand that he was running around in a fairly wooded area, and I understand that it is tick season in New England, but, we use a flea and tick medication and we have never seen a tick on him in all the time he has been taking this medication.  I thought we never would, I thought it prevented them from being on him.  Apparently, it prevents them from embedding themselves into him, but they still crawl around on him.  I. am. not. happy. about. that.

Anyway, we are all home and summer can now begin.  Every itchy moment...