The Boys

Terry and I spent the week babysitting. No, not our grandchild, but our grand dog.

Tyson is Greg’s year old lab with more energy than could ever possibly be imagined. Since we were heading up to the cottage for a week and Greg was busy at work and then a week-end wedding, it was decided instead of Tyson being left alone he would join us at the cottage for the week.

Tyson is about 75 pounds and our little shihtzu Journey is about 14 pounds. They are not good friends. They barely tolerate each other. Whenever Tyson comes to visit he eats all of Journey’s food and then wants to play like a year old puppy wants to do. Journey is not a puppy, and frankly I don’t think he ever was a puppy. His existence is about sitting pretty and getting cuddles. He is not amused at Tyson’s invitations to wrestle.

During the week at the cottage we began to refer to the two dogs as “the boys”. Tyson continued to eat Journey’s food no matter how hard we tried to keep it in the closed bedroom. Journey starved the first two days as he never had a chance to eat his food before Tyson wolfed it down. By the third day however, survival instinct took over and 14 pound Journey pushed 75 pound Tyson aside and ate all of Tyson’s food. Tyson left Journey alone after that.

Speaking of leaving the dogs alone……..one day Terry and I left the dogs alone. We made sure all of the doors were shut tight to ensure no dog escaped and headed off to Minden for some groceries. About an hour later as we were approaching the cottage on our return, we noticed a minor backlog of cars on the highway in front of our cottage. Traffic jams are very rare for cottage country. It didn’t take us long to discover it was a dog blocking the right hand lane stopping traffic. I jumped out of the car and ran past several cars toward the dog….yes it was Tyson and yes I was so upset I really was running!

Tyson had escaped by climbing up on the kitchen counter and jumping through the screened window over the sink! Tyson had been stopping traffic for about 45 minutes and was refusing to leave the roadway until our return. We found out these details from Eric our neighbour across the way who had been trying to convince Tyson to get off the road but to no avail.

Luckily he was safe and sound. By the look of this soaking wet coat I think Tyson had gone for a bit of a swim in our absence as well. When we got inside the cottage Journey was sitting in the very same spot, in the very same position as he had been before we left, totally oblivious to the commotion outside.

Hopefully if we ever get a chance to baby-sit grandchildren it won’t be as eventful as this.