Doggie Sitting

We are doggie sitting part of this weekend. It has been an adventure so far. Tess (our dog), and Nikki (Shawn's sister's dog) get along really well. For that, we are thankful.

Day#1
The two played nonstop. Shawn was trying to work and they kept bumping into him while he was on business calls (it was so funny to watch I nearly peed my pants and had to leave the room in order to stop laughing). In addition to that, we thought it would be a good idea to keep the dogs apart for the night - Shawn slept in the living room with Nikki, and I slept in the bedroom with Tess. (We decided to do this because Shawn and his brother were having much needed 'boys time' away from the wives - and they were up until all hours of the night). Uhhhhh, yeah - not a good idea to separate them. Nikki apparently kept Shawn up all night whining, and trying to get to Tess. I had no idea this was going on, Shawn informed me the next morning. So, when I woke up, I took both dogs downstairs so Shawn could get some sleep.

Day#2
I think Tess has enjoyed life with Nikki here. She has acted more like a dog the last two days than any other time in her life as far as we have seen. I think she really likes having another dog to romp around with. On the other hand though, I think she really misses being an only dog (when she gets tired, she looks over at me with pitiful eyes as if to say, "Mommy, I'm tired and need to rest. Please make the playing stop"). Nikki jumped up on the bed last night. Since she kept Shawn up the night before, we decided to allow her to stay up there. Oh boy did Tess get jealous. Tess whined and whined until we invited her up on the bed too. Last night ended up a bit different than we thought. Tess, Nikki and Shawn slept in the living room and I slept in the bedroom (Tess slept on the couch - Nikki slept in her crate with the door open, apparently she likes it in there - and Shawn slept on the bed). It seemed to work out pretty well - all except for me not getting any sleep (even though I was alone) because I was so worried about Shawn getting sleep - that I woke up at EVERY single noise in the house. From what Shawn said, the dogs were good, and he got some sleep. So, today, I am the one that's exhausted, but Shawn is decently well rested. I think if we had Nikki longer than a couple of days, this wouldn't be too much of an issue. Whenever there is a new dog in the house, there is some settling time. And, if we had Nikki just one more night, I think tonight would be the time that we would all be settled.

Day#3
This morning Nikki got right up and came in the bedroom with me. I wanted to give Shawn a bit more time to sleep, so I left the door open - and Nikki came in and joined me. She wasn't happy until she got on the bed with me. She seemed to like this quite a bit. After licking my face, and cuddling with me, she fell asleep. There were times that she get a bit restless, but I think that's just because she wanted to play with Tess (who was still sleeping with daddy!). Right now the two of them are romping around downstairs having a good time. I suspect that Tess is going to miss having a friend around. All in all, we've enjoyed having Nikki here - although, it does seem like she LOVES being and outside dog. Every time we opened up the door to go out back, she was very happy. Plus, around 4 or 5 o'clock both nights she got pretty antsy and wanted Shawn to throw her stick for her. Shawn did, both evenings, but man - Nikki has energy!!! We are so used to our older doggie, it has been such a change having a high energy dog around. It's a nice change. Nikki's mommy and daddy are going to come pick her up at about 5 o'clock tonight. I am sure she is going to be glad to see them. She seems to miss them quite a bit.

One other thing we had to do differently while Nikki was here. Believe it or not, but I had to hand feed Tess. Tess is so used to eating whenever she wants (she 'free feeds' all day and generally eats when we eat) and Nikki is on a schedule - so to avoid doggie food fights, I fed Nikki in the morning and evening (which is what her mommy and daddy do), and while Nikki was eating, I hand fed Tess to make sure she was eating. (I swear, our dog is so fickle - any little change in her habits and she fasts - weird huh?).

All in all it has been a fun time with Nikki here. I think Tess is going to need the week to recover....that is, until more doggies arrive on Thursday.