This post is in response to Marilyn Armstong’s Serendipity Photo Prompt 27: At Home With Dogs.
What does your dog do when you’re away from home? Do you let your dog roam free, or do you crate him/her?
Puppy Cody has not needed a crate since she was 8 months old and suddenly decided that she was a BIG DOG. On returning home at lunch time or at the end of the day, I seldom find any damage or any items where they’re not supposed to be, and now that her digestive problems have been resolved (knock on wood), I also never find any surprises in the middle of the living room.
So, what does she do all day? This is what I would expect (and hope):
THE HOUSE IS HER KINGDOM
GOTTA FIND JUST THE RIGHT SPOT
NAP TIME!
And, of course, she watches the world go by as she waits for her people to return:
WATCH DOG ON DUTY
OOOO,OOOO, I THINK I SEE MOM’S CAR!
But then I have to wonder. What if I didn’t close the doors to the upstairs bedrooms or bathroom? And what if, heaven forbid, I left my sock drawer open?
TEMPTATION AWAITS
WHAT HAVE WE GOT HERE?
THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT!
CAUGHT!
Yes, she stole one of those socks, but I caught her before she could do too much damage to it. Cody just LOVES socks.
What does your dog do all day?
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Images by Cordelia’s Mom
Cordelia's Mom, Still 
Tell Puppy Cody it has been ages since I’ve been the Parental-Guardian of a canine. Voldemort preferred cats, so we had cats. In fact, he left me with his six purebred cats, Oriental Shorthairs, when he had his mid-life crisis; and then he told me to destroy them. As if I could be that uncaring! Blergh.
As far as I can tell, cats do the same things, whether people are present or not. Felines sleep, eat, chase each other in a pattern representative of the coreolis effect, and look out the window while dreaming of hunting small prey. Occasionally, a cat will wash a small toy mouse in a water bowl, and present it to me. This is always a disgusting gift. In any group of cats, BTW I’m down to just two individuals, there is at least one designated urper. Upper as in, hairballs and stuff. Raleigh points out that it is every cats duty to walk on kitchen counters. So, I need to get over that issue. Triss-Kitty tells me not to forget that each cat takes an oath to present his or her backside to every human visitor to his or het household; particularly to people who are not cat fans.
Among a Guardian-Parent’s duties is the responsibility to provide food, fresh clean cool water and police the multiple commodes. One commode per cat is required, plus at least one extra, and should be available on each floor of the abode. Policing of the commodes should be done at least twice daily, more in multi-cat households.
In return, I am told, through cat communication, I do not sit still for long enough periods. I push them off my laptop and do not allow them to sit on technology endlessly. I fail to keep a space heater on for the them 24/7. I do not feed them endless cans of mercury-filled tuna. I leave the house, because I have a life. In other words I do not devote my entire life to them. Furthermore, I take them to the veterinarian much to much.
I get A++ in the first category, feeding and such. However, the pair refuse to dignify my actions in the second category of extreme critter comforts and medical efforts. I expect that means I do okay. Who wants the house to burn down or have a cold, after all?
I think I am just a slave to my cats.
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I think that’s the main difference between cats and dogs: dogs live to serve their people but cats expect everyone to serve them. Thanks for your comment.
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I love the pictures of her perched up on the table looking out the window. Lol, so cute!
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If you look closely, you can see all the claw scratches on that table. Oh well, it’s the price of having a vigilant guard dog.
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Aww…too cute! Fire would bite anything within reach, especially the girls’ toys left lying on the floor. ( ⋂‿⋂’)
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We can’t leave anything on the floor. She figures that’s fair game. But she’s finally learned that stuff on shelves is prohibited.
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The two canines that call our house home [they are both what we term long-term fosters] are allowed free roam when we leave the house. Right now I also have 3 puppies that are almost 7 weeks [one of our fosters is the mom] and they are firmly crated except for supervised play time.
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Absolutely, puppies must be crated!
We always start our pups out in crates until they learn the rules of the house.
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Since my three little bundles are only 7 week old as of today, it’s very much a given…
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Bonnie used to wrestle the socks from my hands as I tried to put them on my feet 🙂 Bold as brass, that one. As she has gotten older, the only thing she steals these days is any food I leave where she can get it. Still bold as brass, but more focused on edible stuff 🙂 Wonderful doggy pictures 🙂
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Thanks for the compliment, Marilyn. I thought the pictures were all a little fuzzy but decided to use them anyway. That darn dog just wouldn’t stay still! I’ve got to teach her to pose for me.
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Don’t have a feline but I can relate to the post as my in-laws had one who used to bark on outsiders throughout while hanging from the balcony. Very restless.
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That’s a somewhat confusing comment. The dog was hanging from a balcony while barking? That’s something I’d like to see.
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We lived on first floor and this furry creature always used to take his head out of railing to scare the pedistrians and cyclists now & then with his bark. It seemed as if he would jump on street from the balcony.
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Ah, now it makes sense. I kept picturing some poor dog hanging by his tail or something. 🙂
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I think those socks were trying to escape and Cody just captured them.
I make similar excuses for our pup all the time.
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Sure, and then she had to make sure they wouldn’t escape a second time by putting holes in them.
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Absolutely 🙂
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Love the pictures! What an imp.
Puppy Duncan, age 1-1/2 years, is a lucky guy. My husband works from home. Or maybe puppy Duncan is an unlucky guy and can’t get into mischief!
But when we’re both away, he is restricted to the kitchen and family room. Because he is a demon with socks, shoes and will drink from any unmanned toilet! YUCK!
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Duncan’s still a puppy. Cody just turned 2, so she’s a bigger dog now. She has never once tried to drink the toilet water – maybe that’s a boy dog trait.
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Duncan did it for the first time (I think!) just days ago. Yuck!
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I seriously think my dog “sees dead people” so I assume she barks at blank walls, the ceiling fan and at the front door when no one is outside.
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You can’t see what she’s barking at because she’s such a good watch dog that she makes intruders disappear. 🙂
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Um…yea…okay, I will go with that 😉
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Well since I don’t have dogs but cats I truly don’t have any answer for you. (smile) Yet my mischievous cats are truly just that and I must have my house at all times cat proofed. That includes child safety latches on my lower cupboards, all books high (cats LOVE paper), my laptop on a chair under a table, and all doors to closets closed. I’ve had to shorten my drapes because boy cats do the naughty on drapes …. don’t ask me why but they do. Most of my furniture is ruined due to those very same boy cats. I’ve learned what IS important is LOVE, and not furniture. So we do our best at keeping a blind eye at the imperfections in our house and keep our eyes on our babies who truly do rule this house! LOL Now you have a little understanding of what a cat owner must do to cat proof!!! And that is just the short version …. LOL 😉 ❤
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I understand more than you know. Puppy Cody ate the corner of my last couch. But that was ok because our German Shepherd had already ruined it simply by sleeping on it all the time (he was a very big dog, and he drooled while sleeping).
We also keep all doors closed, cupboards latched, and everything of any value out of site.
But I love the animals anyway and wouldn’t want to live without at least one.
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I love Cody looking looking out the window – and stealing the sock!
When we had a pack of four dogs they slept when we went out. Now we are down to one and have started the long process of separation anxiety training. Batty has never been alone so it’s new and scary for her. I’m hoping she will get used to it and eventually curl up and go to sleep on the couch, looking as cute as Cody does 🙂
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Aw, poor Batty. Our Morgan went through that after Riggsie died. I thought she’d be happy with the extra space, but she still curled up in “her” own spot.
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It’s interesting how they cope. We’ve noticed that in the evening after she’s had her dinner, Batty jumps on every dog cushion in the lounge in turn as if to say “that’s mine, and that’s mine!” She used to have to share those cushions with the others but not anymore. Her favourite place still is snoring on the couch, preferably with a human beside her 🙂
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Aw.
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So cute! Our dog, Sadie, is a rescue, and was crate-trained when we got her. We quickly found out she loves a crate, but preferred to sleep in our bedroom at night. We generally put her in her crate, because when she sees signs I’m leaving, she goes into it and waits for a treat. This is, of course, accidental training, lol, but it works for us. When we don’t close the crate, she watches from the window.
Sadie has only ever done a naughty once, when we had a pile of guests, she chewed up one of my daughter’s shoes. I assume she was overwhelmed with stress.
Same with accidents — she’s only messed when we moved. Seems moving inspires her to make on bathroom rugs.
She’s in her crate right now, snoozin.
Now, our youngest cat, he’s the sock fiend 😉
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Our Riggsie, the 90-lb German Shepherd, loved his crate. It was his stress-free zone. While he was free to roam the house, we didn’t take the crate down and would leave the door open. Whenever he was tired, or stressed, he would just put himself into the crate and lie there with the door open. Such a good boy he was. I miss him terribly.
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Aw, yeah, that sounds like our Sadie. I’m sorry you miss Riggsie.
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