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.

The Hamster

In an earlier post I mentioned a pet sitting adventure where Terry failed miserably, although I give him kudos for trying.

Jennifer was in about grade 7 and decided she wanted her own pet hamster. With her babysitting money she purchased the hamster as well as all of the paraphernalia associated with hamster ownership. To her credit she did a good job looking after it since I proclaimed loudly to anyone who would listen a hamster is just a rodent with a cute coat. Jennifer became a good hamster caregiver………..until that fateful day.

It was one of the first beautifully warm Saturdays in June. The pool in the backyard was freshly re-opened for the season and Terry was tending to the gardens. Just as I was leaving to get groceries for the week Jennifer put the hamster into one of those round toy hamster balls to let him roll around the backyard while she cleaned out his cage. She asked Terry to keep an eye on the hamster while she cleaned out the cage. He said sure….how hard could it be? OK, maybe that’s not what he said but I bet that was what he was thinking!

A few minutes later Jennifer returned to the back yard and asked Terry where the hamster was. So intent on trying to determine the difference between weeds and flowers Terry did not notice the hamster had rolled into the pool. Terry quickly took action and fished the hamster ball from the depths of the water. There were no vital signs. Terry desperately tried to save the rodent’s life. He started CPR on the hamster. He put the hamster on its back and gently pushed on his chest to try to bring him back to life. Jennifer was the one who convinced Terry to “call it” and the time of death was approximately 15 minutes after I had left for groceries.

While Terry was very upset his first attempt to safe a life did not succeed, Jennifer dealt with her grief quite well.

Less than an hour later I arrived back home with a trunk full of groceries. In the meantime the hamster had been buried in the garden, the cage and all hamster belongs had been washed and donated to the kids Jennifer babysat around the corner. Any signs of hamster life in our household were completely gone.

While I was the one who never wanted the rodent in the house in the first place it did take me aback that a “family member” could be so quickly and easily discarded. Let’s hope Jennifer never has to make the decisions if we get put on life-support!

Pet Sitting

The kids have all moved out and got themselves pets. Jennifer has a cat named Sidney and Greg just got a new puppy named Tyson. Kaitlin could not be left out of the picture so she got a pet as well, a fish named “Fishy.” I don’t think Kaitlin’s business degree taught her much creativity.

Kaitlin went to the Dominican last week. She was afraid her roommate might not look after Fishy properly so she hired Terry and me as fish-sitters. She carefully explained to me the importance of feeding him each day and night with only 4 granules of fish food. She told me the fishbowl was freshly cleaned so it wasn’t necessary to be cleaned again until she returned. Unfortunately Terry wasn’t home when she left the directions about the feeding and care of Fishy.

The second day we had Fishy Terry decided to feed him. He put in about 4 pinches of fish food which equalled about 40 times what he was supposed to get. By the time Terry got home from work that day, the bowl was filled with cloudy water and Fishy was not moving at all. Terry decided to rectify the situation by cleaning the bowl and starting over. Terry somehow got Fishy out of the bowl and put him in a cup. He emptied the water, washed the bowl sparkly clean and re-filled it with fresh water. Terry realized the cold tap water might be a bit of a jolt for Fishy so he was even kind enough to wait a few hours until the water reached room temperature. Then the fun began.

Terry was working without a net.

Terry tried to fish Fishy out of the glass with his bare hands. Fishy was startled and jumped out of Terry’s hands and wriggled all over the floor. After a few minutes of flopping around, Terry was able to finally catch Fishy and return him safe and sound to his bowl. While everything turned out OK, there was a few frightening moments, although I am not sure who was more afraid, the fish or Terry.

Kaitlin returned a few days later and was pleasantly surprised Fishy was still swimming around. I don’t think she had much faith in our fish-sitting abilities as she still remembers the last time Terry babysat a pet. There was the time Terry tried to give Jen’s hamster CPR. But that is a story for another post.