Last week our neighborhood four-leggers had a busy week traveling from one house to another. Rather than the game of musical chairs, for the dogs it was musical houses.
It was planned that Tucker would spend a couple of days with us. As we were awaiting his arrival Monday morning, suddenly happy little Stanley was bouncing at the gate. His arrival that early told me that he, too, would be spending the day with us.
He hurried up the steps, dashed into the kitchen, and bee-lined for Whitney’s dish. Staring into an empty dish wasn’t at all what he was expecting. He immediately began doing a bouncy dance around my legs. With each bounce, I looked into his eyes and heard, “I’m hungry, so would you please hurry and put food in that dish.”
At about that same time, Tucker arrived. The excitement of seeing Tucker distracted Stanley―very temporarily―from his thoughts of food.
Once Tucker was settled in, I poured three bowls of food. Silly me, what was I thinking―three bowls? The feeding ritual is, though they may each start at their assigned bowl, they always end up taking turns eating out of just one bowl. They always work it out amongst themselves who takes a bite and when.
The three lazed around and let the food digest, that is until I saw a wood tick on Stanley. (As followers of my blog, you are all aware that ticks freak me out.) DJ saw the signs of my ‘tick panic episode’, and immediately began the search through his fur. I knew instantly that the new fall crop of ticks had hatched and I would be in panic mode for the next several weeks.
As DJ performed tick removal on a very unhappy Stanley, Bracken arrived on the scene. His arrival motivated Tucker and Whitney to rise from their slumber, and gave Stanley a welcome break from ‘tick picking’.
Stanley was the only one of the group that was not having a sleepover that night. After he headed home it was meal time for the three remaining dogs. Again I set out three bowls and again they used just one. Duh―shouldn’t I know that by now. Tucker has had many sleepovers at our house and he long ago claimed his favorite spot in our room. So with Tucker on his mat, Whitney on our bed, and Bracken under the table, it was time for us all to have a good night’s rest. With three dogs I knew morning would come very early.
DJ took the three for a walk in the morning and came home with four. Not wanting to miss out on any fun, Stanley had joined the group. Upon their return Stanley and Bracken were each thick with ticks. I, of course, freaked out again, which was DJ’s cue to promptly begin the tick removal. Tucker and Whitney proudly let me know that they were tick free!
Tucker’s owners picked up Tucker and Bracken later that day. I’m sure Bracken thought he was going home, but unbeknownst to him he had one more sleepover to do at Tucker’s house.
Because of an appointment for me the next morning, it was Whitney’s turn to move on up the road and spend the day at Tucker’s house.
But that’s a story for next time.
So long, I’ll see you soon!
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