Thanksgiving was pretty interesting this year because:
a) Brother B didn’t show up (I heard he was working but he’s dropped off the face of the earth recently so I’m not sure what he’s been doing).
b) My uncle showed up (can’t remember the last time that happened).
c) We brought the puppy over and my mom even let her (briefly) into the house!
We didn’t want to leave the puppy home alone for several hours so I asked my mom if we could bring her and set her up in the garage, so that’s what we did. We put her crate in there with blankets and toys, and put my heated foot mat underneath the crate and my free-standing oil heater (which I bought recently to use at work because it’s always so cold in there) near the cage but far enough away she couldn’t touch it. We also brought an iPod radio and I left The Cure playing in there. She was so good! We’d go out there every 1 to 1.5 hours to check on her and let her out to potty. The heaters helped keep her warm and even though she came from Arizona she seems to like the cooler temps anyway.
She was a nightmare on the car ride there, though. We put her in the small travel carrier we used when we flew home with her but unlike then she was not calm and she whined and tore at the carrier 45 minutes of the hour ride. Ugh! She was much better on the ride home, though. She whined for less than five minutes. I hope she gets used to it so we can take her on rides without her roaming freely in the car where she can hurt herself.
Incidentally, she’s lying on the back of my computer chair now chilling while I blog. Joe is out on a job interview (fingers crossed).
My Uncle B visited for well over an hour which is unusual for him. He has a house filled with animals (including a squirrel, a horse (there’s a stable on his property) and a wolf). His wife, who passed away last year, worked in a shelter and was a huge animal lover. He delighted in showing us recordings of his African Grey Parrot who loves to curse. It was pretty funny!
After my uncle left we played a few games and then my mom put a blanket down on the living room rug and we brought the puppy inside to play. My dad got down on the floor and played with her and Brother J was getting into it too. He’s not really a pet person (or a dog person since he had a bad experience with one when he was little) but by the end of the evening he was really digging her and even came outside to say goodbye to her. It was cute! I made my mom mad saying I am going to name her Princess Fluffybutt Fuckface the 3rd. Hehe
Oh, and we didn’t have her inside long because my mom started having breathing issues. I feel so bad for her that things bother her so quickly and easily. She actually used to have a dog before I was born – a St. Bernard named Diamond. He died when I was too little to remember him, although I have photos.
It sucks that we can’t bring the dog over when we visit unless we keep her crated in the garage. It would be so much fun to have her in the house, plus good for her to meet new people since when I took her on a walk after work the other day she got scared when she saw the mailman (cue stereotypical mailman joke).