Dog Sitting Woes

My sister and her family are away for over a week in Mexico. I volunteered to watch their dog. He is the cutest little thing...............and so far, he is winning. We have a toy Maltese. She is jealous and isn't in the mood to play. Chatham, their dog insists! I have decided to keep a little blog journal of this adventure. Last night was the first night so I will start there. 4/5/08-pick up Chatham and bring him home. IMMEDIATELY put both dogs outside to do their business. Dogs come back in, play, growl, then plop on sofas. I go up to bed later in evening, notice pile of poop in living room......not my dogs. (Yes, I know the difference!) Our dog goes to sleep with son and I take Chatham in my bed. Chatham restless all night as he is not used to traffic noise. Hears EVERYTHING and jumps up. 4/6/08-wake up and take Chatham outside. He is out for a while so I assume he is done. I go about getting my morning coffee. He sits with me. I finish coffee and go downstairs to change laundry from night before. He follows. Walks around basement investigating things. I am folding clothes. Son comes downstairs and yells, "There's poop on the floor!" Sure enough, Chatham has pooped again! (this is in a matter of being let out 3 minutes prior!) I give him benefit of the doubt as I think he is used to being let out on leash. We have fenced in backyard so I don't see the need to have to walk him to poop! I go out to Costco to get some things we need. I get home and hubby says dog came to him and wanted to go outside. He goes out and throws up! Good Boy! At least it wasn't on the carpet! Now I am worried as I know my dog will throw up if she doesn't eat. I notice he is not eating out of his bowl. Figure he is out of sorts. I take some kibble and put a little pile on the floor and he eats it. This will be a fun week! LOVE YOU KERRI! (sis) Stay tuned................ Ok! This day wasn't quite complete! The doorbell rang, I answered, but only opened the door a CRACK! You guessed it! Chatham squeezed through! Proceeded to take off across the street. Neighbor kid who rang the bell took off after him. He ran more. So off I go with CLOGS on my feet! Keep in mind that I already have bad knees, and CLOGS are not easy to run in! He decided to play cat and mouse with me and would not come to me. Every time I got close to grab him, he took off again. Then he saw someones dog chained up outside and decided to say hello. I pounced! It has been raining, this other yard with dog is very un kept and muddy!!! No picture me with muddy dog trudging home! BAD DOG! Hopefully this will be the last for today! NOT!!!!!!! Getting reading to call it a night and decided to let the dogs go outside one last time to do their business. Mine goes out, comes back in. Chatham decides he needs to sniff around and take his merry old time. Uh OH! He sees a RABBIT! Chatham takes off after rabbit. Rabbit slides under slat in fence. Chatham SQUEEZES through slat in fence! Now he is off again, this time chasing a rabbit! I yell for husband and son! It is dark, we are outside trying to catch this dog! The scary thing is that he lives out in the country and has run but comes back. Here, we have a lot of traffic and right behind us is a major road. If he gets through the one large fence out behind our house he will surely get it! So think from now on he will have to be walked with his leash! My heart is still pounding!