Mom in Fargo / Never Owning Pets / Just The Guys
So my mother and Ryan made it to Fargo on Saturday and all is quite well. Ryan starts back up at his job on Monday and his final term at Minnesota State University in Moorhead begins in a few weeks. His journey is over. My mother, who has overcome her social and travel anxieties to make the 1,500-mile road trip to visit her family for the first time in over a decade, has truly been amazing. I hope this incredible breakthrough will continue when she returns to Oregon and that she can continue being outgoing. The real test, however, will be if she can survive the return trip- She's planning on flying home this coming Friday all alone. It's been her choice. We'll see what happens.
While she's away, taking care of our family's menagerie of pets has fallen entirely upon me. It's really not that big a deal. In the morning, all the pets get specific amounts of specific foods and water and periodically I let the dogs out. Hehehe get the pun? Anyway, I feel I've been doing a fine job keeping the animals alive. The cats are typically independent but the dogs have become a problem. Blu, our large German Shepherd, is a restless spirit. All day Saturday, he was pacing around the house and demanding to be let outside constantly. He'd pace around the yard as if he were looking for a place to poo but nothing would come of it. Putting on my Sherlock hat, I deduced he was constipated but couldn't figure out why. He wasn't given any unusual food and wasn't exposed to anything. I let him out as often as I could, but even I had to sleep.
Coming down the stairs this morning, I figured Blu would want to be let out to begin a new day of stomping the yard. I rounded the corner on the landing and, to my complete horror, there's doggie diarrhea all over. After spending an hour cleaning that, I discovered a pile of poo left by one of the cats who wasn't using the litter box for some secret reason. I swear, those smells will never be lost on me and I shall suffer them always. My dad and I have no idea what we've done any different to give Blu diarrhea and give one of the cats an overwhelming reason to make the new carpet a dumping ground for dump-poo. Ohh man, thank god I've got a sense of humor about this. But seriously, it's incidents like today that convince me to never own pets. Ugh.
On a lighter note, I have to reiterate a previous post and say that it's a whole new vibe around here just being my dad and me. Since it's just the two of us, meals are easy-going instead of full-on productions. We're barely going through any dishes and things are just quieter. There's less errands that have to be run, less dishes needing to be washed, less everything and the place almost seems to be on cruise control. I'm not implying that my mother makes things hectic around here of that it's better when she's not around, not at all. I'm just making an observation that there's quite a difference between there being two and three people living here. I'm sure it was the same way when I was with Jaci for a month and a half earlier this year. Now if only the pets can survive the week, we'll all be okay.
While she's away, taking care of our family's menagerie of pets has fallen entirely upon me. It's really not that big a deal. In the morning, all the pets get specific amounts of specific foods and water and periodically I let the dogs out. Hehehe get the pun? Anyway, I feel I've been doing a fine job keeping the animals alive. The cats are typically independent but the dogs have become a problem. Blu, our large German Shepherd, is a restless spirit. All day Saturday, he was pacing around the house and demanding to be let outside constantly. He'd pace around the yard as if he were looking for a place to poo but nothing would come of it. Putting on my Sherlock hat, I deduced he was constipated but couldn't figure out why. He wasn't given any unusual food and wasn't exposed to anything. I let him out as often as I could, but even I had to sleep.
Coming down the stairs this morning, I figured Blu would want to be let out to begin a new day of stomping the yard. I rounded the corner on the landing and, to my complete horror, there's doggie diarrhea all over. After spending an hour cleaning that, I discovered a pile of poo left by one of the cats who wasn't using the litter box for some secret reason. I swear, those smells will never be lost on me and I shall suffer them always. My dad and I have no idea what we've done any different to give Blu diarrhea and give one of the cats an overwhelming reason to make the new carpet a dumping ground for dump-poo. Ohh man, thank god I've got a sense of humor about this. But seriously, it's incidents like today that convince me to never own pets. Ugh.
On a lighter note, I have to reiterate a previous post and say that it's a whole new vibe around here just being my dad and me. Since it's just the two of us, meals are easy-going instead of full-on productions. We're barely going through any dishes and things are just quieter. There's less errands that have to be run, less dishes needing to be washed, less everything and the place almost seems to be on cruise control. I'm not implying that my mother makes things hectic around here of that it's better when she's not around, not at all. I'm just making an observation that there's quite a difference between there being two and three people living here. I'm sure it was the same way when I was with Jaci for a month and a half earlier this year. Now if only the pets can survive the week, we'll all be okay.