Gone to the Dogs: Reflections on Passive Aggression and Puppy Piddle

I am a traditional girl who traditionally takes part in several traditional summer traditions. One of these traditional summer traditions has been to puppy sit for my pal Elizabeth.

My first excursion into the furry, slobbery world of dog-watching took place way, way back in 2008 when Elizabeth went to Poland for three weeks. While Liz and her banjo were having many international musical experiences (and one awkward hostel communal shower experience), I stayed in Cowtown to keep an eye on her neurotic bat-eared rat-dog, Chloe.

During those three weeks, my nephew Bentley developed and deep and abiding love of smallish dogs, Chloe developed a whole new set of neuroses rooted in newly developed abandonment issues, and I developed some fun ideas for blog posts that have since become some of my favorites (much like this one... My Puppy Epiphany). What Elizabeth and the other party involved in the awkward Polish hostel communal shower experience developed is anyone's guess.

Since that summer of '08, I have puppy-sat for Elizabeth approximately 873 times. In the last few years, Chloe has been joined by Willow, a shih tzu/poodle mix (which, on an unrelated note, makes for the only mixed dog-breed abbreviation more interesting than my beloved labradoodle ).

This past week, I kept an eye on Chloe and Willow while Elizabeth was house hunting in Las Vegas.

 In case you weren't aware, Elizabeth was recently lured to a Nevada teaching position by the promise of excessive heat, legalized gambling, and licensed brothels.

Ha ha! Just kidding!

I think!

What Elizabeth was actually lured by was the promise of getting paid a lot more to do less work, which is pretty much the opposite of what happens in Idaho.

And really, who can blame her for that? Certainly not me, which means that my bringing-up of that unfortunate awkward Polish hostel communal shower experience in this very public post is in no way a passive aggressive response to my newly developed abandonment issues.

An actual example of a passive aggressive response to abandonment would be tinkling on the floor... Which brings us back to the original topic of this post: Puppy Sitting.

The addition of a second pup to the puppy-sitting has made the process much more exciting. And when I say "exciting" what I mean is "filled with escape attempts and puddles of puppy piddle."

While Chloe is very intelligent, polite, graceful, and intuitive, Willow is, well, a total spaz.

I spent most of the week trying to figure her out.

One minute I was sure that she is as dumb as three bags of rocks. The next, I was certain she was an evil genius. Either way, it was a bit of a relief when Elizabeth returned and re assumed the responsibility of the two additional bladders.

And, since Elizabeth will still be around for a week or two, you might want to take the opportunity to ask her about that awkward Polish hostel communal shower experience.

Passive-Aggressively Yours,
Mindy