In my opinion, you must love puppies very much to get one. I write this as I am dog-sitting for my daughter and her family who are on vacation. They adopted one of the puppies who is now 4 months old. Foolishly, I volunteered to dog sit because “poor little baby, you can’t board her. She’s too vulnerable and young”. She may be vulnerable and young, but she’s a handful.
In one day, she has gotten into more trouble than I could ever have imagined. On our first day, while relaxing on the balcony, puppy Mocha managed to get her head and paw stuck in the balcony railing. Screaming at the top of her lungs-the puppy, not me- became hysterical pulling and pushing to remove her head from the railing. Mocha successfully removed her head only to get her paw stuck underneath the railing while doing so. This caused further screaming – by me as well as this time. I realized I needed to turn her entire body sideways to remove her paw safely. What seemed like an hour actually took about 15 seconds.
Thankfully, Mocha was fine. But I had to cradle her like a baby for about 2 hours until she felt safe again. I, on the other hand, needed a couple of stiff drink to get over the ordeal.
Now, to give you background – I previously lived in this same property for many years. I had up to four dogs (all rescue) living with me. I’ve had dogs visit me in my home many times. We all enjoyed the balcony with no mishap. But the difference was that all these other dogs were adults. I had forgotten that Mocha really is like a baby and I have to watch her like one to anticipate her antics.
I have reinforced a valuable lesson – I’ll never get a puppy and I won’t dog sit again until Mocha is an adult dog. On second thought, I'll wait until she is a senior dog.
I have four more days of dog sitting with little Mocha and will share her antics in other blogs. I also have my puggle Lulu and my daughter's other 10 year-old dog Oreo with me, so life is very interesting right now.
The next day, Mocha was back out on the balcony, but she is avoiding the railing.
This posting has nothing to do with travel pillows, only in that it helps support a cause. I give about 10% of my profits to animal rescue efforts. My focus is spaying and neutering dogs so that every dog born has a loving home.