We had quite a disturbing experience two mornings ago when McKenna woke us up at 5am to nurse. I think this was one of those wake-up calls that, Wow, we really have been neglecting our poor boys (and for those that don't know me, I don't actually mean neglect, I mean not treating them like the babies we did before our, well, baby).
Normally when it's early in the morning Chief Osceola is raring and ready to go for the day when the rest of us have plans to go back to bed. On my way to McKenna's Nursery I noticed that he wasn't tagging along, or anticipating my arrival as I moved through the house. I was thinking, "aww that's sweet, he must be sleeping in McKenna's room" even though he's not allowed in there. Nope. So I kinda did a more thorough search while holding McKenna, to no avail.
At this point I check places I already knew he wouldn't be, like the guest bedroom or closets, so I woke Kevin up in a bit of a panic. We both started doing the panicked hurry running around the house. Kevin, with his distinctive tone "where's my dog?" (because Chief Osceola is still his puppy to him... it's alright, Chief is still my puppy to me). Chief Osceola suffers from sporadic seizures, so that panicked feeling is all too familiar.
Kevin started to open the blinds to go out on the back porch as I went out the front door. Lo and behold, I didn't even have the screen door opened for a millisecond when I was consumed by a cold, wet golden retriever. The four of us (Me, Kevin, Chief, & Chief Osceola) rolled around for a few minutes on the front rug in a frenzy.
How could we let this happen?!! How could we be such awful parents? Chief Osceola has a tendency to think that when a door opens, it's his opportunity to frolic and play in the yard. But our dogs never stay out without us. And we don't have a fence. Kevin and I were having a disagreement when he opened the garage and took the trash out around 9PM. This was the only and last opportunity for Chief Osceola to slide out. In the tension filled house, we both were in bed, backs facing one another, and sleeping before 10PM. There's no excuse, though. How did we not do a headcount? Chief Osceola's movement is always so prominent.
The sprinklers had been on so he was soaked. Kevin later noticed that there were muddy paw prints at Every. Single. Car. Door, even the car he's never ridden in... that was the dagger. If you know Chief Osceola's personality, he can be pretty intense, overly-excited, and happy. He gets fixated on something and won't forget about it. He also doesn't like being away from people. [Think: Stewie from Family Guy].
So we know good and well he spent the entire EIGHT hours outside trying to get back in. I can tell you one thing for sure, he wasn't laying down when I opened the front screen door.
I felt angry with Black Chief. He's so intuitive, he always lets us know when something is wrong or off. I spent a little while that morning crying, wondering how we've gotten to the point where our Fur Babies have become Dogs. It's made me sad, but has also brought me to the realization that we need to spend more time loving on them. They were our babies before we even met! I can't fathom how we did it. We were so selfish and too preoccupied with ourselves our poor pup suffered. Let me tell you he has been given some love the last couple of days.
Let's let on a positive note.... a girl with her puppy.
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