Silly dogs

Yesterday Alexis and Lily decided to go outside and see if neighbors were home to play with. As Alexis opened the door, she shut it quickly and let us know there was a random dog outside the door. It immediately started scratching at the door wanting in. Of course we open the door (we can't stay inside all day long!), and in runs this cute little Pekinese dog. He starts running all around the house. It took us a bit to get him and pick him up and bring him outside. None of the neighbors recognized the dog, and it was awfully cute. The problem is, he had no collar, no tags.

My heart softened a bit and I thought to myself, well, perhaps we will take him and put him in the back yard for a bit and see if we find any signs up in a few hours and then call the pound if nothing shows up. A few minutes later we let Duke into the back yard to see if Duke liked this new little friend...and he thought it was great! So now in my mind I am thinking, of course we should get another dog, but a smaller one this time! Duke deserves a friend--he would be so much happier!

So I let this little dog occupy our afternoon for about 3 1/2 hours. The problem was that every time one of the kids wanted in or out the back door, this little guy would try to worm his way into the house, and if he got in, it took about 10 minutes to catch him! He is a fast little guy who is obviously used to being indoors completely. It also came to my attention rather quickly that he was most likely from a house where people didn't care what he did--no manners whatsoever!

I was getting ready to call the pound to come get him when he got into the house one more time, and I was just tired of him. So I sadly just let him out the front door and left him to go wander into another person's house. Last night I was pretty sure we should start looking into getting a small playmate for Duke. He loved it, and the kids loved having a littler dog around too.

Then...

I took the kids swimming this afternoon. Being half Lab, Duke is somewhat psychotic about the water. He loves it with a passion. In Porterville we would let him go swimming in the pool and he loved it, but now it has become a crazy obsession. He recognizes what swimsuits look like. If the kids are wearing them or even just holding them in their hands, he starts going crazy and whining. If we are swimming and he is not in the gated area, and whines and cries, so we usually let him in and then he just paces the pool and drinks the water and whines.

Well, Duke was tired of not swimming, so today while the kids were swimming, he decided to just jump in! He started swimming and swimming and was simply in heaven. He swam for about 15 minutes and then I finally caught hold of him and with great prodding got him out of the pool. The problem? Apparently the pool chemicals sit in Vacaville water versus Porterville water differently. Duke got sick and then we had messes to clean up. UGH.

I have decided most definitely that Duke does NOT need a playmate. I can't handle even the thought of dealing with more messes! We have 5 kids--close enough!


Duke, the crazy dog and a cute photo of Lily jumping in