Dogless once more

Kita went home.

As sweet as she is, it was a little bit of a relief. I'd forgotten how much attention a dog requires. And if you don't give them as much as they want, they find other ways to amuse themselves.

1) Chasing cats. Kita does this at home and her owner thinks it's funny. Of course, she's chasing her own cat, who actually provokes the chasing - it's playing. But OUR cats don't understand this. Poor Misha lived upstairs after being chased, then stuck in the garage for a day and a night because that's where the dog stayed at night and we didn't know she was hiding in there. Now, two days after Kita went home, she's still hanging around upstairs because she's not positive the thing is gone.

2) Chewing. Kita's still a puppy and when she's bored, she chews on stuff. She mangled one of my husband's shoes. She brought BRICKS up on the deck and chewed on them. She managed to get a hold of the pineapple top (which stunk to high heaven and was banished to the porch) and chew that to pieces. The old bathroom rug is toast. And one of our banana trees was taken down and shredded on the deck. All this despite plenty of chewies and toys. Dogs are messy.

3) Fleas. No - this is not an alternative to attention but it is a consideration in getting re-used to dogs. We gave her a flea bath and put topical flea stuff on her - and she STILL had fleas. Her fur was short but VERY dense and getting a flea comb through it was hard. I'm very allergic to fleas, but am willing to put up with a certain amount of discomfort and scarring to have my fur babies around. The cats are actually fairly easy to manage in the flea department, but the dog had me throwing my hands up in despair. Maybe its just her. I don't know.

All that being said, I see a new furbaby in our near future. It won't be Kita. Her daddy is too attached to give her up, and my husband, after seeing the dog in her own environment interacting with her "pack" has given up the idea of having this particular dog. She is quite happy with her own family. We miss having a dog. Or two. They're messy, drooly attention hogs, but if you get them, love them, train them - you have a friend and protector for the rest of their life.

A visit to the pound is looming after the holiday. I just don't know when that will happen exactly...