A very shitty night

So I left work an hour early yesterday so I could get home to let the dogs out.  My boss is nice enough to let me do that whenever I have solo custody of the dogs.  As I walk in the house from the garage there is a nice big pile of dog shit on the area rug.  I could tell it was the work of Sadie.

Sadie, momentarily oblivious to the atrocity she planted at my feet came running out, thrilled to see me.  I brought her back to reality when I pointed to the pile of excrement, pointed at her and said in my stern voice, NAUGHTY.  Instantly, her ears drop, her head lowers and she slinks away.

I hold my breath and pick up the area rug to carry it into the front yard where I flung the shit off.  I left the rug piled up on the floor of the garage as I knew I would have to wash it.  I go inside and notice Nicki isn’t anywhere to be seen.  That’s weird.  I call for her as I look around the house, nothing.  Finally I realize she is out on the pool deck.  I find it hard to believe she didn’t hear me.  I called her inside.

Well then I realized why she was hesitant to come inside.  I glance over at the guest bathroom and see that Nicki has left a matching pile of shit on one of the area rugs in there! Geezus..  I again point and use my stern voice which sends both Nicki and Sadie into the bedroom.  What a wonderful way to start my evening.

So again I carry the bathroom rug out front and eject the poop into the yard.  If there is any “good” part of the double deuce dropping it is both dogs did it in a location that was easy to clean.  I threw both rugs in the washing machine as I sighed.  This was not the way to start off a week of dog sitting.

So as I went back to the bedroom and changed I didn’t say anything to the girls, they both looked guilty enough.  After I was done changing I patted them both and said it was ok.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, neither of them would take a dump in the morning before I left for work.  I had them out for a ridiculously long 20 minutes so they would have every opportunity to do so.  In the past there have been similar situations where they wouldn’t go in the morning but still were ok during the day, they just didn’t have to go.  Well I think they now have adjusted to Ali’s schedule where the day starts significantly later.  Ali said sometimes the dogs will not even try to get her out of bed until after 9 am. I guess my up at 5:30 routine has them out of whack.

Well the rest of the night from that point on went downhill.  I made the dogs supper but neither of them went after it initially.   This is normal for Sadie, but not for Nicki.  So I took them outside, thinking that after playing in the back yard they both would be ready to eat.

So after spending 15-20 minutes outside with them I walked back towards the house.  Sadie followed me in but Nicki instead plopped her self on the small hill by the pool cage and laid down there.  Ok fine, she looked quite content to sit out there by herself so I let her be.

Well she sat out there for almost 90 minutes.  I stuck my head out the slider a few times and asked her if she wanted to come in and she didn’t budge.  After the 90 minutes I went out to her and told her to come in, which she did, slowly.

I figured she would be starving by the time she came in.  But instead of going over to her food dish and getting busy she came to the edge of the kitchen and laid down on the carpet.  WTF.

I reminded Nicki her supper was there and she should eat.  She knows what that means.  Still, I got no response.  I then try to entice her by grabbing a piece of lunch meat, ripping it up, and placing it on top of her dinner.  She STILL will not come out to her food stand.  It was almost like she was scared to come to that spot.

I again tell Nicki she should eat her supper in a more deliberate tone.  She got up and did her fast trot back to the bedroom like she was in trouble.  I was really getting frustrated.

Nicki can be rather neurotic.  She develops fears of things very easily.  She is still the only dog I know that is afraid of cats.  When you try to correct her fearful reaction she often responds by just acting even more freaked out.

So I was trying to figure out what her latest hang up is.  The only thing I could think of is she knew about Sadie’s pile of shit in the laundry room.  Maybe she thought it was still there and if I saw it I was going to get mad, I really don’t know.

So I go back to the bedroom and Nicki is on her bed, moping and looking miserable.  Even though I know she doesn’t understand me, I try to reason with Nicki, telling her it is ok, I’m not mad and she should go eat her supper.  She just lays there.

I go back out to the kitchen and catch Sadie eating Nicki’s supper!  This was like bizarro world.  Sadie knows Nicki’s food is off limits and the biggest problem we had in the past was Nicki moving in on Sadie’s food.   I yell at Sadie and tell her to get lost.  She left but then as soon as I left the kitchen she would head back in there, defying me.  Now I was really pissed, I shooed Sadie out to the pool deck and told her to stay there.

So I then probably made a mistake, I went back and carried Nicki out of the bedroom and closed the door.  I am sure once again Nicki sensed my anger even though it wasn’t at her.  When I sat her down she immediately went looking for another place to hide and heads into the guest bathroom, wtf….

I get her out of the bathroom and she then scurries up to the office and hides there.  It was so frustrating but I realized the more frustration I showed the more Nicki was going to act weird.  I sat down on the floor and petted her, trying to reassure her.  I didn’t try to encourage her to eat the rest of the night and she didn’t eat a morsel.  She even ignored a treat I sat right between her paws.

I’m not really sure if her flakiness is a reaction to her shitting in the house, missing Ali or a combo of both.  This morning the only part of her “breakfast” she would eat was the lunch meat and I had to put the plate on carpet by the kitchen, she still wouldn’t come to her food stand.  She did eat a couple treats before I left.

I can hardly wait to see what gems await me tonight although at least Nicki did her business this morning before I left.

This weekend I have to do some work for the office, I haven’t decided if I want to try to do it all remotely or go in there Saturday to get it done.  If I go in I would bring the dogs with to let them hang out.

I have my normal load of indoor and outdoor chores lined up of course.