Time To Decorate

My dad would have loved this video so just had to post it here.





I wish all my readers a very Merry and Blessed Christmas! Hope you will celebrate our Savior's birth in a big way!

To find out more about my book and why I wrote it, read the Foreword here. Tweet This

Our Dog’s Most Destructive Behavior (Writer’s Workshop)

My parents let me choose a puppy one day with the goal to get me over my fear of dogs. It worked. I chose a cute brown one with four white feet and a white tip on his tail and named him Brownie. I quickly bonded with Brownie and when my mom yelled at him, I’d put up my sign on my bedroom door that read “PEOPLE WHO ARE MEAN TO DOGS, STAY OUT!” My parents thought it was funny but I was VERY serious.

I did not like the fact that my parents insisted Brownie stay in the basement when we moved into our new house. He was no longer a puppy by this time and I was in the fourth grade. Harry put a baby gate at the top of the stairs so he couldn’t come up. My mom didn’t want the dog on the furniture and I don’t think she ever really liked dogs all that much anyway. Sometimes we would get to let him up though but if he barked, mom would flick water at him which he did not like!

I knew Brownie was a smart dog and since I felt sorry for him that he had to be in the basement most of the time, I decided to teach him how to open the baby gate. I showed him how to push up the pin with his snout. I never actually saw him do it, but one day when we came home I was so elated to find that Brownie actually did it! My parents were very upset because while we were gone he chewed up all four pairs of the new boots my parents just bought for us kids!

Does any kid like wearing boots? Maybe some do, but not us. We thought it was so funny and were so pleased that Brownie did this for us. However, my parents were not pleased at all and my dad couldn’t figure out how Brownie got out. I proudly told him that I taught him how to open the gate! We still got more new boots, ugh! Brownie died when I was in high school shortly after we moved.

Here are links to the other Writer's Workshop posts I did this week: A Thanksgiving To Remember and Did I Really Want To Change My Life Forever?
See more Writer’s Workshop posts or choose a prompt and participate yourself at Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop.

If you liked this post you would like “My Funny Dad, Harry. To find out more about my book and why I wrote it, read the Foreword here.
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But Dad, I Don't Want To Ruin My Doors

Recently our dog discovered the cats' litter boxes and has helped herself to the poop. Twice now she has vomited poop, once when I was home and once while I was out. It smells awful and what a mess! I heard dogs are attracted to cat poop so I was so happy that Abby wasn't . . . until recently.

I know if dad were still alive, he would have a simple solution. He would offer to just cut a small hole that our cats could go through in our two doors to our upstairs rooms that have the litter boxes our cats use most often. This would be a simple solution all right, but somehow if we ever wanted to sell the house, I doubt if people would like holes in their bedroom doors.

I know this would be a viable solution for dad because he cut out the whole bottom half of two of his doors so he could see where the cats were before he opened it. He put pieces of Plexiglas in them and when I was getting ready to sell the house, the realtor gave me a whole long list of things I should fix in order to sell it quickly and those doors were on it. Fortunately, my dad saved everything and I found the panels to the doors close by.

In my case though, I'd really rather not cut up the door. Other than creating a way of access for the cats that the dog can't get through, such as installing a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs, the second most popular suggestion is to put some Cayenne pepper on some poop for the dog to find and it will probably cure her of the habit real quick. This sounds mean to me and she'd probably vomit it up.

My idea is to just train her to leave it alone and stay downstairs, but the dog trainer said she'd be really impressed if I could pull that one off because it's instinctive behavior--it's part of being a dog. She said it would be very hard to do that and the vet agreed. Abby will stay at the bottom of the stairs if we tell her to. I can be upstairs for 30 minutes and come back down and she'll still be there. Now if I could just think of a way to teach her to stay down when we're not home, that would be great!

In case that doesn't work, I have seen automatic self-cleaning litter boxes at PetSmart for over $100 that I though we could try. Does anyone have any experience with these? On second thought, maybe I could use dad's solution on the closet door . . . hmmm. Have to give that some thought.

Anyone else have this problem? Sandee at Comedy Plus told me about an article "How to Stop Dogs from Eating Cat Poop" on in the comments on my other blog where I mentioned I just learned about this happening this week. Thanks, Sandy!

UPDATED 10/31/09: Here's how I solved the problem:
Here's the link to the cats' post about it: Litterbox Fences Solve Poop Problem

To find out more about my book and why I wrote it, read the Foreword here.
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