The Big Journal of Petsitting: Days 1-6
10 years ago
General
Day 1So, its the official start of my petsitting gig for my father-in-law and I have found yesterday that there are fewer pets than I thought there were. Originally I believed I was looking after about 8 dogs, a cat, and 3 birds. Now it's 6 dogs, 2 cats (one that is a pregnant stray that belongs to the neighbor), and 1 bird.
The animals are thus:
Shelby the Boston Terrier - She's been around since I started dating my now husband and is a pitiful sweetheart.
Yogi the Yorki - Not quite the yapper you'd think he'd be, with a love of squeak toys.
Winston, an English Bulldog pup - He's about 6 months and rather derpy, its adorable.
Tator, a small white dog of a breed I don't know - I call him Chew-Toy.
Prissy or Priss, an elderly boxer - She's a total sweetheart and will make this little 'aroouw' sound when she wants your attention.
Tyson the other boxer - He's the guard dog of the house, but don't let that fool you, he's as affectionate as the rest of them.
Java the cat who thinks he's a dog
Trip the stray cat - She's heavily pregnant and belongs to the neighbor, but my father-in-law helps feed her and stuff.
And then there's Dreamer, the Scarlet Macaw. Generally quiet, but when Dreamer decides to be known I just have to say "Shh".
Yesterday, late afternoon, when I arrived I was given my instructions; shown how to feed the bird and how much food to give the dogs and such, where the supplies were (such as towels, cleaning things, etc), and was introduced to the amount of food they'd gone and bought to make sure I was feed while they were gone. They even bought me a temporary cellphone so I could keep in touch with them and my husband. I was also told that when the neighbors returned Thursday they would come introduce themselves and would keep an eye out to make sure I was okay, which is nice. I'm not too worried about anything happening, I know Tyson's got my back if I need it.
Things have been going well so far, got up at the crack of dawn for now reason, other than I probably went to bed to earlier and kept waking up during the night, and did my rounds of feeding everyone. Then I had my little breakfast of a cappuccino and some dounuts; discovering that Winston {the silly thing) had attempted to make off with one of my flipflops. Thankfully, he didn't chew on it or anything. But seriously, for as noisy as he is, he made off like a ninja with it; and my flipflops are bright orange.... >_>
Oh god! One of them just farted! ACK!
But that's all for now, I'll type up another entry tomorrow morning and every morning there-after to give you the latest news of the shenanigans that happen around here.
Day 2Good morning mah peeps. It's Day 2 of looking after this would zoo that belongs to my papa-in-law.
Yesterday went well, I went swimming for a bit and proceeded to do a marathon of the Sleepy Hollow series followed by The Crazy Ones. Not to mention I started dancing with Dreamer, which was surprisingly fun. But other than that nothing to exciting accept I had a bed full of 3 dogs and one cat that tried to steal the bed from me... well Shelby tried to steal the bed, Yogi just wanted to cuddle against my side.
So far today, however, I have done my rounds of feeding the animals and brought Dreamer out into the living room with his/her stand (I honestly can't remember if the macaw is a boy or girl... >_>;), and they're currently preening. But I literally just popped out of the shower and was greeted by the sight of Yogi and Winston sitting before the door waiting for me. Kinda cute and reminds me of my kitties back home who'll peek in on ya or just trot on it (Izzy and Ramona respectively, Izzy rarely walks into the area where the bathtub is and will just peek in through the outer door). The shower was weird though, because I'd forgotten that they hard water in comparison to the soft water back at my apartment; and yes there is a difference in water, and those that know what I mean understand the awkwardness.
In other news I've got Hansel & Gretal: Witch Hunters playing, a rather nice movie in my opinion; but I don't know what I'll watch after this. -shrugs- I am hungry though so I'll make me some fries... or maybe chicken or a sandwich... I'm not sure. But I am excited for this weekend, because the hubby is coming over to spend it with me ('cause he has weekends off from work) and is supposed to bring me a nice burger from Jack-in-the-Box. Which I nearly had to beg him to bring me because he was being his usually asshat self and teasing me. ;3;
So I shall say farewell for now and give another update sometime tomorrow. Ta.
Day 3Alright, so I know I'm a little later on this than I have been; but can't be helped, wanted to just wait a little longer than normal. :P
The rest of yesterday went fine as normal, Dreamer was especially chatty and active while I had him out in the living room. Today I've got him in the bedroom where he usual is, its a bit of work to roll his stand in and out, I'm telling ya; keep thinkin' the bird is gonna fall off while I'm moving it around. But the most notable thing after I'd moved Dreamer back to his room was that Winston attempted to apprehend my flipflop once again, while I was watching. It was kinda funny, he grabbed it and hobbled off towards the corner of the room before I chased him off with a notebook. Only thing I had to worry about was the drool. Ick.
And I slept pretty good, stretched out nearly diagonally across the bed due to Shelby being right in the middle of the mattress. And Yogi deciding to run off outside yapping in the middle of the night. But I must say, Tator is a bit slow at times. You see, I have to help her up onto the mattress, but there's a small couch next to the bed, which Yogi uses to get up. Tator doesn't seem to realize the couch can be used, so I have to lean over and pick her fluffy butt up off the floor.
This morning went pretty well, did the feeding rounds and discovered one of the cats had knocked down the cat food during the night. -sigh- But that was easily fixed, just left what food that had spilled out so it could be eaten and put the bag back. Not much else I could've down probably. Then I started searching for stuff to watch, either on Netflix or Hulu, and found The 100 which is pretty good I think; apparently its based on a book -makes note to self to find the books and give them a read-.
However, the day came up with some bad news, news that I had hoped wouldn't happen while I was away. My husband lost someone in his family. I'm not going to say who or how or divulge any details as its not fully my right. But I can't help but feel guilty for not being there when he got the news as he was there when I got the news of someone dear to me passing away last year. But he should be coming up here soon after he gives the house keys to a good friend of ours (who we often have drop by to feed the cats when we're not there) and then there will be lots of cuddling involved...
Not like that you pervs. :P
So I shall say 'ta' for now and return to my show and await my husbands arrive so that I may drown him in my love like I've been drowning in these dogs. 'Til tomorrow.
Day 4-6Alright, so... yeah I'm a few days late of doing this, but I figured that it'd be more fulfilling to let a few days go by and then update ya'll on it. So... let's see. Ah yes.
I did get to see my husband on Friday, and he brought forth gifts of my toothbrush (which I'd ashamedly forgotten, ick) and a Jack-in-the-Box burger and fries (a bacon ultimate with curly, I usually just get the regular ultimate). Sadly they gave me a soda instead of sweet tea *pouty face*, but I'm alright with that. Sadly though he was not able to stay the night as he was leaving early the next morning to head down to Texas with his step-dad. I, unashamedly, eventually texted him and told him to take pictures of Texas, as I've never been there (grew up in Kentucky, lives in Tennessee, doesn't count Indiana or Ohio. Oh, and has been to Michigan once.) He laughed at that which was my intention and gives me news that its apparently hot as balls and that I should be happy that I'm not there.
Which I guess is a good thing as I don't take to heat well, if at all.
Saturday I didn't do a whole lot, made brownies and settled in for a One Piece marathon as I've never really watched the show. I didn't get too far maybe episode 10 I think? I was at that cat/butler guy where they meet Ussop, or however you spell his name. :P But that's besides the point, I went swimming as well; not that I did for very long, maybe 30 minutes, because dogs. But while I was watching One Piece, Dreamer decided upon himself that he was going to be chatty; and there I am watching anime with a macaw in the background quacking and saying "Hello" which I couldn't help but quack and say "Hello" back. What can I say, I'm a softie for animals.
Sunday I didn't do a whole lot either, watched a friend stream on picarto and wished my laptop would be nice to my tablet as I really wanna frickin' draw right now. I also popped back onto Jurassic Builder as I've been neglecting my nearly symmetrical park for quite some time. Oh! And I did laundry, how fun is that! But I also got news from the husband that the funeral won't be til this Friday, the wake being on Wednesday, so I can only hope that his workplace will be lenient with him. >_>
I noticed yesterday, however, that Trip seemed a bit smaller around her stomach than usual and today she didn't show up when I was doing my feeding rounds, so hopefully she's had her kittens and now all the neighbor and my father-in-law need to do is find them I suppose.
So now I'm listening to Winston pant, the big goober, since he was wrestling around with Shelby, although I believe the fun was broke up by ole' Priss because she was trying to pass through and they were in her way. And I've currently got the bed comforter in the washer because dog hair galore.
Sidenote: I miss my cats, I wanna go home and sleep in and be a dinosaur with my steam friends and cuddle my Izzy-bear (the cat that's my baby, I also call him Izzy-banana in a singsong way that's catchy enough to get the hubby doing it after a while, upon which he starts cursing me for it. lol)
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