A funny thing happened this morning- Gregg always kisses me goodbye by the front door before I leave for work and Tess gets up on the couch, thinking she's going to go out too. When he opened the door, she ran out onto the lawn and he called for her to come back in. She wasn't listening very well though. Gregg told me to go start my car while he took care of the situation, then went inside to put jeans on since he was only wearing boxers. When I opened the door to the car and sat down, Tess jumped in behind me and climbed in the passenger seat. I quickly closed the door so she couldn't escape again. Gregg came outside looking for her and I rolled down my window to tell him she was in the car. He came around to the passenger side, grabbed her by the collar and pulled her out. Then he picked her up and carried her toward the house, stopping to say goodbye again. The dog had this look of surprise on her face, like what just happened?
Gregg decided that we now have to permanently leave the baby gate up, even in the mornings when we get ready for work. When I was in the shower yesterday and today, she grabbed clothes out of the laundry basket and started chewing on them. Yesterday she also ate the only favor from our wedding that we had saved- it was on the end table in the living room, right beside the framed invitation; a little bundle of Hershey's Hugs wrapped in netting with purple ribbon & silver-like rings. I was really upset, but Gregg said if she hadn't gotten to it, the ants would have. I pointed out that we've had it for almost four years and no bugs have gotten into it in all that time. I thought she had eaten my MP3 player too, because that was on the end table also and it was missing. It turns out Gregg just put it up on top of the tv so that she couldn't get it. We just can't trust her anymore.
I told Gregg, "What are we going to do? Just put everything away so she doesn't chew or eat it? Where can we keep her where she won't get into stuff??" He said we just need to make sure that she always has chew toys available. She does have her plastic bone, but half of it's already been eaten. I feel bad that Gregg wanted a dog so much and she's making life so difficult. We can't watch tv in peace because she jumps on the couch and wants attention. When she gets up on the bed and we tell her to get down, she doesn't do it right away but then when she is down she throws a "tantrum". By this I mean she growls and barks for several minutes. If we ignore her, she stops eventually. She doesn't compliment our life like that guy on the animal show said. She complicates it.
I really think that she is better when Gregg isn't around. The whole going crazy for any attention, I mean. She doesn't expect a lot of attention from me so she doesn't get all worked up. But with him, she goes nuts- jumping up, biting him playfully, can't sit still next to him on the couch. She's downright annoying.
Our lives are busy enough as it is without a dog to have to constantly deal with, or clean up after. What did we really expect though, getting her from the shelter? Maybe we need to look into obedience training.
Anyway, it's not the end of the world. Just one of the many challenges facing us right now. Sometimes I'd like to press the pause button on my life. I think these lyrics from an amusing country song sums it up well: "It was 1980 something, in the world that I grew up in... now I've got a mortgage and an SUV and all this responsibility; it makes me long for 1980 something..."
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