Adventures in Dogsitting

 I've known for a while that Asher quite likes dogs, and I've entertained the thought more than once of having a dog around just to see how that might add some spice to his life. But I am not a dog or even pet person. I don't really mind them all that much, but they just seem like a lot of work to me, and I'd rather just deal with my own and my children's (and husband's) messes rather than adding animals to the mix. I've kept in the back of my mind the prospect of dog sitting though, in order to give Asher more of a taste of what it would be like.

So Chaco came to visit first. A friend of mine put a desperate plea out on FB for a last minute pet sitter when hers fell through, so I offered our services. He's a one year old chocolate lab. Still a puppy, but not really very puppyish. He was quite calm and really obedient. He enjoyed lounging in his crate, went outside easily to the bathroom, and remained very quiet. He was very good with my two kids as well even though he is very much bigger than they are. His owners have small children so we figured he would be fine. He also was very good at night, which was my biggest concern. Not a peep, so we could let him out when we were ready rather than being woken up super early.

 Asher liked him and liked his crate. He loved to play inside it with the dog. Sometimes he'd get a bit rough with Chaco too (like wrestling him), and Chaco would just take it although I would remind Asher that if he was mean, Chaco might be mean back and that would be his fault.

 Then a few days after Chaco left, I offered to help a friend who had to leave town when she had learned of the sudden and unexpected death of her brother. So we were dogsitting again!

I'm not sure exactly what breed Dusty is, but he is a much smaller dog, about a year old, and much more like a puppy. He was jumpy and a lot more barky. But Asher and Julia loved him and his crate too. Dusty was a also a very social dog. He wanted to be wherever we were, and he didn't like to be in his crate. We would sleep him there at night because he wasn't going to sleep in my bed or in my room, and he would whine and cry for a while every time we would put him in there. Fortunately, we could put him at the front room of the house so that he wouldn't awaken our kids or prevent us from getting to sleep. I felt bad, but he would always settle down eventually and he was always safe.

He loved my kids and they loved him.

Will we be getting our own dog any time soon? No. I was pretty glad to give them back at the end of their time with us, and I think I am going into semi-retirement as a dog sitter. They are a lot of work, and I have enough of that around. :)