Saturday, September 27, 2025
Pet Project
We adopted Dolly a little bit less than six months ago. It has been a ride. Initially, she did not seem to want to sleep at all, but rather to scamper about our bedroom at night and bark the most chilling and impossible to ignore bark anyone has ever heard. Her first few nights, we ended up taking turns sleeping with her on the daybed in Ian's office so at least one of us could have a shot at sleeping through the night. That was followed by taking turns sleeping with her on a camping mattress on the bedroom floor. So when people are shocked when I tell them she gets one of us up at four in the morning each day, what they fail to understand is that this is a major improvement. At least we are both sleeping in our actual bed in our bedroom!
Another major improvement is that she will now often let us get her ready for a walk without running away from the lead, crouching in fear, and depositing a small amount of urine on the floor. Mind you that she always seemed to like actually going on the walks, it was just the process of getting ready that threw her into a tailspin. Now, though, the dramatic fits are far less frequent, and our Swiffer is grateful for it.
Less improved is the barking. She has a tendency to bark whenever she feels people are not paying enough attention to her, which is often. Sometimes when I stop petting her because I have to, like, go to work or something else frivolous, she will immediately bark at me. It definitely gives Karen energy. I sense that she wants to speak to my manager.
Oh, and let's not forget all of the emergency vet visits. In the first month we had a week where one of us was there with her almost every night because she was having terrible stomach problems. If you have never cried from frustration and sleep deprivation in the "zen den" at an emergency vet's office at three in the morning, I do not recommend it. Also, parking there was for some reason like $14 even in the dead of night when the entire garage was empty. But regardless, we have not been back there since May, so I take that as a major victory.
Overall, she's an adorable little weirdo and we probably wouldn't know what to do if we ever had a dog that wasn't crazy in some way. They do say that dogs begin to resemble their owners.
