Barley, the Wonder Dog
The past weekend for three nights and four days, I dog-sat for my son and daughter-in-law while they were out of town. Normally, my weeks fly, however, those four days seemed like forever … haha! My initial thought when asked if I would watch Barley was “ugh” …. I really wanted to say no since I had flashbacks of last year’s stay when she was very young. It was non-stop attention since she never sat still. I was however, hopeful now that she was older. She’s been at my house several times for the afternoon or evening and had always been well-mannered during her stay.
I’ve always had a bucket of toys which she knows belongs to her and emptied every time I rounded them up throughout the day. Her favorite toy was a tennis ball and unfortunately her last stay I spent much of my time crawling on my stomach to locate and coax the balls out from under the couch. This time, however, I had a plan. I rounded up all my extra towels and blankets, rolled them and placed them around the entire perimeter of the L-shaped couch. This was a victory in itself; even though there were four or five other locations that had me crawling and removing the damn balls.
Barley’s a golden retriever, lives on a small farm, is rarely on a leash and has free-reign at home. Unfortunately, my house backs up to a busy road and therefore, she always had to be leashed. After the first night I knew she needed to run. For the next two days I brought her by my friend’s house to visit so Barley could run and play with her dog Ellie, and Millie, the next door neighbor’s dog.
The three dogs had quite the different personalities; Ellie, the princess who couldn’t be bothered to play, Millie, the queen that ruled the land, and Barley, the playful and rowdy jester. At one point I couldn’t see Barley and then noticed across the neighbor’s yard her head poked up over the side of the kiddie pool when I called her name. She was making herself at home. Millie wouldn’t go near the water and Ellie, gingerly climbed over the side to get a drink, then back out, however, Barley was in and out probably six times.
Prior to Barley’s stay I purchased four new toys and four varieties of treats; I wanted to be prepared. Within the first two hours she had completely destroyed the new ball, one I had thought would be difficult to pull apart since it was made of strong rubber …HA. She had it in tiny pieces.
Every time I tried to get something done, to get my attention, she’d drop her tennis ball in my lap or at my feet or even on my stomach when my friend and I were virtually working out, …… nonstop. It was difficult to get anything done with her around. Even though Barley, the wonder dog was sweet, friendly, and non-aggressive, she spread mayhem in her path. I pray the next time I watch her overnight she’ll be less-puppy like and perhaps a bit lazier; one can only hope.
xoxox…..Sheryl
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