Cargo

Hooray! A non-baby related post!

People know I love dogs. More than people, in some cases. And people know that I have been a willing dogsitter in the past. And most of the time, I'm happy to comply, knowing I can bank favors for when we need to leave our furbaby for a night or three. So we've had a bunch of dogs here at 22 Queen Lane. We've had a few hellish houseguests, and a few that caused no problem, but ultimately, Sam definitely likes having buddies around to play with.

This week it's Cargo. Cargo is my friends Jen and Ryan's 6 month old golden retriever puppy. Other than having a ton of energy, he is very sweet. He's been staying with us since Monday afternoon, and everything had been relatively uneventful until last night.

Dave and I decided to take Cargo and Sam to the park because it was so nice out, and we didn't want them cooped up in the house all night. So we load up the pups into the Soob and head down to Oaks. We got ourselves situated, and the let the dogs off leash. I kept a close eye on Cargo, because he is new to the park and still pretty young, but he is a good size and can pretty much hold his own. Well, apparently I was wrong. A large rottweiler started sniffing him profusely, which resulted in Cargo on his back. Then two other dogs came over and started pushing him around, and the next thing I knew, he was on the ground screaming, as a large bulldog had sunk his teeth into poor Cargo's leg. Luckily, the bulldog's owner was responsible and gave us their info once it was decided that Cargo indeed needed to go to the vet to have his wounds checked out.

Two hours, four surgical staples, and an Elizabethan collar later, we brought the shaky little guy home. He is taking Amoxicillian as precautionary measure, and the doctor did warn me it could make his little tummy a little sick...

...fast forward a few hours.

I fell asleep last night on the couch at about 11:00, and finally stumbled upstairs to bed around 1:30. At 5:45 I heard whimpering downstairs, where Cargo was in his crate and Sam was on the couch. I groggily pulled on my clothes, and went downstairs to let the boys out. Yawning profusely, I walked Cargo for a good 5-10 minutes; he did what he seemingly had to do. We came back in as Sam lingered outside. I made a quick pitstop myself... couldn't have been more than 2 minutes... and when I came out, Cargo had left a 3 foot long trail of poop on my family room carpet. And it was NASTY. Now, one of the symptoms you experience when pregnant is a heightened sense of smell. This did NOT benefit me this morning. I wanted to be angry at him... I mean, come on, we HAD just been outside for a nice little walk... but the poor guy just looked up at me from his little cone collar and I couldn't. Luckily, we were well stocked with carpet cleaning products from the last poor-mannered houseguest we had last fall. So, here it is, 6:45 am, an hour after the incident, and I'm awake. There is no hope of going back to sleep at this point, as, though I've sprinkled several products on the affected area, the smell is definitely still pungent and probably will be for awhile.

I do know that, though I thought I learned my lesson before, it has definitely sunk in now. I'm pretty sure Lindy and Dave's days of dogsitting are over. And I thank God every day that we haven't replaced our carpets yet. Each doggie accident that occurs on here makes me realize that is just about time to really make that happen, especially now that we have a kid on the way!

I know most people say no way, don't get new carpets with a baby in your future, but I don't want my kid crawling around in other dogs' shit. No thank you!