The Dogs Revolt

It's 8am, and I'm scrambling to fulfill all three beverage and breakfast requests. Someone wants oatmeal! Someone else is protesting oatmeal in favor of scrambled eggs! The baby is just squawking, watching me dart around the kitchen with an empty sippie in my hand.

At this point, I'm buckling Little Man into his highchair as I notice one of his socks is suspiciously yellow.   I know exactly what this means, unfortunately. It means that the dogs have peed on the carpet in the playroom- the designated "pee grounds"- much to my dismay. Little Man has been stepping/playing in it. Ugh. Again, I have decided carpet is impossible to keep up with kids and dogs.

Yanking off the yellow sock, I run upstairs to grab a replacement, throw breakfast (the oatmeal camp won out this morning) at the kids, and grab the portable carpet cleaner to go take care of the inevitable puddle seeping into the floor. I kick the dogs outside, (to assumably try pottying on grass for a change) and go about the rest of my morning routine.

Then the racket of yapping dogs starts up in my backyard. Either a) the neighbor kids are walking to school, and thus must be ferociously barked at. or b) a neighbor cat has come to call on our yard, this being just plain unacceptable to the canine residents. (who are both afraid, of and mad at, the feline demographic of our new area)

--sidenote: we decided Peaches' issues stem from the cat-poop-eating. I know, gross. I'm guessing she eats the poop in protest to their very existence. I fail to see how this accomplishes the purpose, however. After expensive tests and tons of worry, we are charged with somehow keeping the cats from using our yard as a litter box (any ideas?) while keeping the dogs from eating the feces. (again, explain how YOU would handle that- I'm thinking MUZZLE) --

I find Peaches has maneuvered her tiny frame around the big rocks and chicken wire hastily thrown up at the side gate to prevent the dog's newfound escaping tendencies. She's trotting around the front yard with her tail held high, looking for trouble. Last week, after living here a full four months, I find both dogs wandering around the neighborhood as we arrived home from preschool- great. I totally have the time to plot clever solutions to thwart my four-legged-houdinis.

After re-messing with the chicken wire, barefoot on decorative landscape rock, I come back inside to find YET ANOTHER puddle in the playroom. Time to go back and dig out the carpet cleaner.

The canine activity has heightened. And I am at a loss. The only thing keeping these dogs at this home is the fact that no one in their right mind will take them to their house, and after watching Marley & Me, I begin to hope that someday I will look back on our time with these dogs and fond memories will... happen. (Oh the days when our house constantly reeked of urine! How I miss them!)