Friday, January 30, 2009

Chocolate Therapy Redux

If ever I needed some chocolate therapy, believe me, it's been this week.
Not only has my oldest son left for 5 months in South Africa (it's been 3 whole days and I haven't heard from him yet), but I'm dog-sitting for a friend.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm glad to do it and I owe her - she's watched my dogs and it's a relief to know I don't have to worry about them when I'm out of town.


But my friend, she makes it look easy.

Granted, she's admitted that she often finds it easier to relate to dogs than to humans, something I can certainly commiserate with, but if Cesar Millan ever retires, my friend could easily take his place as the dog whisperer.

So, I now have a small pack of dogs in my house, including my ever-increasingly crazy St. Bernard. At 5 months old, she's growing into her puppyhoood, full of insane energy and toddler mischief. Just this morning I caught her emptying a Kleenex box one tissue at a time, bouncing from couch to couch, chased her to retrieve a ball of yarn, removed a multitude of Kleenex bits from her mouth and jowls, saved all but the cover to a cookbook left on the couch, placed several magazines high out of reach, distracted her from chewing on the entryway rug, put the dog bed out of reach of chewing high up on top of the television... you get my drift.


Our guest, Gil, is a Cardigan Welsh Corgi, as sweet as sweet can be. Except he's got some anxiety issues (hmm, I guess you could say he fits right in) and has decided that Sarah belongs to him. He also stays close to my side all day, ready to combat Wally and Ivy, if necessary, to keep me to himself. I thought it was wild having two big dogs romping in the living room, but add in a territorial midget and the romping quickly turns into a rumble.

Oh, and I almost forgot (ha!) to mention that he's having some diarrhea issues. Gil lives on a small acreage and has been known to not only happily wallow in rotten carcasses, but to partake in these unexpected culinary delights as well. I surmise he had a little snack shortly before my friend left and the after-effects just need to work through his system.
Um, yeah.
Poor baby, it's hard to be sick when your mommy is out of town.

Wally is taking this all in stride, having just about finished his own antibiotic prescription. He got some kind of bacterial infection last weekend that caused him to cough horribly. It was probably a new strain of kennel cough, or some such. I think he's enjoying his new status as "the good dog."

The weather is still cold, with plenty of snow still on the ground and my fireplace is temporarily out of commission.
The situation definitely calls for a little therapy a la Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake with Dark Chocolate/Ginger Crumbles.


Yep.
I feel better already...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh my, what a crazy dog situation . . . but it's something I'd totally enjoy (all except for the diarrhea!).

I had to smile reading about your St. Bernard's antics -- our "pups" are a year and a half old, and tho we no longer have to move EVERYTHING out of reach, we still come home sometimes and find placements and cloth napkins on the floor or in the backyard, as well as any already-worn socks that weren't put into the clothes hamper. Kleenex bits are so much fun to extricate from doggie mouths, are they not?!!

I've always felt I'm not made to mother lots of kids, but I would enjoy having lots of dogs, if we had the room for them.

Anonymous said...

That is a handful of a week! I hope that the dogs settle, but I'm sure that they appreciate having your care for them (as does your friend).... A comfort day is certainly in order. Pumpkin with choco is a new combo for me. While I can't eat choco, my family often likes it, and they'd be intrigued I'm sure.