Doggie Daycare

I used to think that doggie daycare was just for yuppie puppies in urban high-rise condos. That was before we adopted Orion. He's 100+ pounds of love. And neediness. And separation anxiety. Orion was abandoned as a young dog, and there's no way to tell how long he was alone before being brought to the Humane Society. The wonderful people at the shelter here gave him food and love and after about two months with them, Orion found a home with us. We love him, and we try to work around his issues as much as we can. The problem is that he cannot be left alone. Ever. We can't kennel or crate him, or he rubs his nose and paws raw trying to find us. We hope with time and training he will learn to trust that we'll never leave him, but right now, he's simply too scared of being abandoned again to leave him at all.

I realize most people reading this are probably thinking, "Oh for Pete's sake! He's a dog. Let him bark or cry, eventually he'll get used to it." Worse, I've had people tell me to my face, "Forget that! I would have just returned him by now!". That mentality always ticks me off, since it was selfish people who made him neurotic in the first place! We're just trying to make up for the mistakes of others, since neither Orion, nor any other dog (or animal, for that matter), ever deserves to be mistreated, neglected, abandoned or abused. Even if you don't agree with me, or perhaps especially if you don't, but you have a pet, please keep reading.

We found a solution in a local doggie daycare. Play N Stay lets us drop off Orion any day of the week. We bought a package of 20 days, so each day only costs us $9. He has constant companionship, a small pack of friends he plays with once a week, and humans we trust to watch over him. This daycare and boarding facility is part of a pet complex run by a vet, so in case of an emergency, Orion would get immediate medical care. It is also a regular sponsor of the local Humane Society where we got Orion, and some of the employees work at both places. They know about his individual needs and have worked with us week after week to make Orion more relaxed and happy with us and with them.

Each Thursday, Orion can't wait to go to his "puppy playdate", and I can run all my errands or go on outings I couldn't do with the dog. I've noticed that I get more done and spend less money when I plan ahead for my Thursday shopping. In fact, I'm usually so organized that I can do several weeks worth of errands in the one day, and enjoy the next few Thursdays at the beach or the bookstore or anywhere else I want to go. This time apart is an important part of Orion's therapy, learning that we'll always come back for him. It's also some breathing space for me, as if my toddler was at Grandma's for a few hours. The socialization he gains playing with other dogs helps boost his confidence, and he simply loves it. To be honest, he's socializing us, too, since we've met some wonderful people because of Orion. If we ever do leave Orion for a few days, we know he'll be safe and happy with people he loves in a familiar environment.

No matter where you live, or what you've heard about doggie daycare in the past, I encourage you to consider if it's a resource that could improve the quality of your life and your dog's. Most people aren't dealing with the severe emotional challenges we see in Orion, but as you can see, there are lots of benefits to finding good canine care, both for the dogs and their people.

My New Time Management Weapon

Yesterday began week two of my neatly outlined and well-scheduled summer break. As regular readers of this blog know, my Mondays are the height of production and organization. It was a busy weekend, but I got to bed at a reasonable hour Sunday night, prepared to hit the ground running at 5 am on Monday morning. Well, I'm a mom, and life happens. I didn't get any sleep and I got a late start yesterday morning. No worries, right? Just dive right in! Well, it turns out it wasn't that simple.

Over the weekend I made a couple of simple mistakes. One was using money from the wrong account for a shopping trip. I still haven't figured out where I got the idea that toilet paper comes out of the food budget, but somehow I found myself with less money at the checkout than I'd thought. I had enough to cover my groceries, but I spent hours wondering how I'd lost $ 60. My husband was very understanding and confident that it was a simple error and we would find the money again, which it was, and we did. Still, I was angry at myself for doing it in the first place - I'm supposed to be very organized, right? The other "mistake" I made wasn't really a mistake. It was having an article turned down. Sigh. It's hard for me to even write it, but the simple fact is that writers have worse stats than baseball players, and the best baseball players fail 70% of the time. So it shouldn't have come as a surprise, and I certainly had no reason to take it personally. In fact, contrary to the horror stories you hear about cruel rejection letters, my editor in this case was quite polite and encouraging. Somehow, though, I let my mistakes compound and took them very personally indeed. By Monday, I was paralyzed with fear of making another mistake. I sat at the computer checking every email, chatting on Facebook, and surfing the internet. At one point, I almost considered balancing my checkbook.

Noon came and went and I finally took a break from my procrastination to feed my kids. The kids, oblivious to my great failures, were perfectly content to shake their tailfeathers with Ray Charles and the Blues Brothers between bites, laughing and dancing and pulling on my leg to join them. I knew I had to bite the bullet, write another article, and get on with my life, or I'd miss out on all the fun. I promised the kids I'd write for one more hour, then we could go play in the pool until dinner time. Then, I put myself in time-out. I set the old-fashioned kitchen timer for 60 minutes, pulled the office door closed and got to work.

My office door is actually a decorative screen, and there's another doorway to the living room that's only covered with drapes, so I wasn't really ensconced at all. I could still hear the kids clearly, and they could still get to me easily. So perhaps it was the constant tick-tick-tick of the fat, round dial behind me that kept me focused. Maybe that visual and audible reminder was the signal we all needed to declare that time as work time for mom. For whatever reason, it worked. At the end of an hour, I had an article. A few minutes of proofreading and final editing later, it was out of my hands, off for submission to my editor, done. Now, it could come right back to me for revision, or, worst case scenario, it could be turned down. Only time will tell. In the meantime, I'm here, writing again without fear, and my kids and I plan to hit the pool much earlier today.

Adjusting to Summer Schedules

Yea! It's summer vacation! I admit I'm probably more excited than my kids about it, since they like school so much. I don't dislike the school year, but I do enjoy the freedom of a summer without schedules. Well, schedules imposed on us by someone else, that is. Being the control freak that I am, I have a summer schedule for my family all worked out, even though it's only the first week of summer vacation. As a work-at-home mom, I was really looking forward to the change from "their" schedule to my own. It always bothers me that my husband rarely gets home before six, but the kids need to be in bed by eight during the school year. Somehow we're supposed to enjoy a family dinner, baths, stories and so called "quality time" in those two hours. What usually happens is more like two hours of mayhem; what a lousy way to end the day. So generally, our family schedule in the summer runs well into the evening and those long, summer nights. While the kids sleep in, I plan to get my work done by continuing to get up as early as I do during the school year, about 5 am.



So far, I haven't kept to the schedule even one day. Only yesterday was I close, because I had meetings and obligations outside of the home, so I had to be on time. Monday, though, I slept in, simply because I could. Tuesday I got up on time, but my husband was home, so I talked to him instead of working. On Wednesday, there was a great thunderstorm, so the kids and pets all piled on top of me for comfort, and who am I to deny them that love? As I said, yesterday went pretty well, but today is Friday, and I've pretty much resigned myself to starting with a clean slate on Monday.

They say when you receive a financial windfall, you should play with ten per cent of it or you run the risk of blowing it all. The way I see it, this week was our ten per cent of play. I'm glad I have a schedule to aspire to, but I don't mind having a little wiggle room. Next week, I really should get down to business, but I'll be more relaxed and rested knowing I had a little vacation between schedules.