Last night I gave Henry an 8:00 p.m. snack while I was making brownies. (No, I did not give him any brownies. I gave him a little bit of milk.) He loves milk and hasn't gotten any since we moved from Iowa.
When it was time for bed, we felt sorry for Henry having to be in his kennel so much, and decided to let him sleep on the floor in our room. He had been doing that up in Iowa, so we figured that he might be ready to try it down in Texas.
That was our first mistake.
He snored quite a bit until Joey poked him, but then he was quiet until 2:15 a.m. when he began to whine. Plaintively. I thought he probably just wanted up into bed with mommy, so I ignored him.
Until I heard the sound of rushing water....
"NO!! HENRY NO!!" I was awake and out of bed in a flash (but careful to not land in the wet spot), grabbed Henry and took him straight outside where he finished his business.
I stuck him in his kennel for safekeeping, and went back to bed.
At 3:30, I was again awoken by barking. Loud barking. Annoying barking. Henry's barking. I figured he was just upset with me for kenneling him, so I went, took him out, told him "NO, NO, Henry!", and put him back in his kennel.
He was silent as the grave.
My alarm is broken and didn't go off this morning, but Joey's did and so I got up at 6:15, already behind schedule. I went out into the office area and immediately noticed that something smelled amiss.
Poor Henry had an accident in his kennel--probably from the milk I gave him. Poor little chap's not used to milk anymore.
I'll spare you the gory details and just say that it was smelly, gross, and took a long time to clean up. Then I realized that Henry needed to be cleaned up, so I threw him in the shower. (Nicely, of course.)
We fed him a light breakfast, then rushed around trying to get ready, wash kennel bedding, fold the laundry, and dry the dog. We were doing pretty good, too, all things considered.
Until...
At 7:10 a.m. Henry looked at us both, and pooed on the carpet. (Poor guy, I guess he figured that his signals weren't working, so he wasn't going to use them!) We have to leave at 7:15 in order for me to drop Joey off and be where I need to be by 7:45.
I grabbed him again (gingerly) and took him outside. He looked very penintent, poor guy. I pumped some Immodium into him (not a lot, but enough to help him not be sick again today), Joey cleaned up the floor, and we put him back into his kennel.
Seriously, he never did this until we moved the second time. I think it must be stress or something...but anyway, I totally dropped the ball on that one! I will be running him outside from now on at the slightest hint of a whine or bark.
Moral of the story: Don't ignore your dog. Even when it's 3:00 a.m.
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