Friday, June 23, 2006

First the Dog, Now the Cat . . .

Have I mentioned I have a psychologically damaged dog? Her name is Sallie. I didn't want this dog. Our beloved lab Hunter had died, and I was adamant we were not having another dog. Nope. No more dogs.

(Unless, maybe, a cute little Schnauzer . . .)

So this stray dog had puppies in our yard. I found homes for all but one, and then mama dog got hit by a car. Hence, this sad little lonely orphaned puppy, which my son named Sallie.

I was still swearing that we were not keeping this dog. No way, no sir, no how.

Guess what? We ended up keeping the dog, she fell in love with me, I fell in love with her, we all live happily ever after, right?

She has separation anxiety issues.

She chews things. Not small things. Big things. Drags them right in front of my porch and chews them up, makes a nest. We're home, no chewing. Leave her alone, chews everything.

I solved that by making sure she had a comfortable, secure kennel so I can pen her while I'm gone and she won't destroy everything (Did I mention she shredded the mosquito netting on my new garden gazebo? And the seat off DH's bike? What's next?!).

Obviously, it's not enough that I adopted one mentally damaged animal. Nooooo. Now the cat is in on the act. Her name is Kitty Baby. Our neighbors gave her to us. We love her.

I think she has agoraphobia.

She's always been an in-out kitty. She comes in at night, goes out in the morning, stays in the yard, she's a happy kitty.

Except some feral cat had kittens over at the empty house next door and keeps trying to run in our house to steal her food. She doesn't want to go outside, so she hides in the bedroom and sleeps all day.

And now she's borrowing tricks from Sallie's book . . . when I went to put my pj's on earlier, after hearing major thumping from the bedroom, I found said Kitty Baby in the middle of the floor . . . eating my navy Old Navy flip flops!

I now have cat saliva and teeth marks on my navy flip flops. Do you know how hard it is to find navy flip flops at Old Navy this time of year?!

Did she attack DH's ratty tennis shoes? Noooo. My shoes.

Darn cat.

Does anyone want to recommend a good pet therapist? Maybe one who gives group rates?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

*sigh*
unfortunately critturs chew on stuff.

my suggestion- get puppy baby a chew toy. every time you catch her with something in her mouth that isnt hers- take it, and grab her nose and say NO BITE!!! and hold it for a few seconds. she won't like it a bit. as soon as you let go, give her the chew toy. you redirect the bad behavior (chewing) to something that is okay (chewing her own item) think of her like a baby... shes going to do certain things anyway, its your job to teach her what is okay and what is not.

this also works great for when they bite toes... eventually im 93% sure that she will be a toe biter. most puppies are

the kennel, in the end, is very good. crate training is good. she will get attatched to it (Ive seen a dog that would get in his crate and pull the door shut when strange kids came over!!).