Whippets three for a buck, adults included

I was out of the house yesterday for half the day and got home anxious to begin working. Returning home from being gone for any length of time has now become an ordeal. The dogs know when they hear the garage door open that the human is back. Even the puppies, at six and seven weeks old have been taught that when the human walks through the door, the best way to get attention is to be loud. REALLY LOUD. The x-pens are right where I walk in and before the door is even fully open, 19 puppies in two x-pens are on their back legs greeting me.

Well, greeting me is one way to describe the sheer volume of sound. Sometimes the call of a single seagull spiraling upwards into the sky is beautiful. Sometimes seagulls have a raucous scream as they wheel and dive for food. I have 19 seagulls all exercising the scream version.  And, even as I dash to the kitchen for a bowl of food and put it in with them, that’s not enough. We don’t want food, we want YOOOOOOOOOU!!!!! The only way to end the ear splitting noise is to climb in among them and let them pile on to say hi. That really is the fun part – a pile of warm furry beings all trying to climb my body to get their individual hugs and kisses.

Oh, that’s right, there are two pens and while I say hello to the first group, the second group continues to scream. OK, switch to the other pen. Thankfully, after greeting me the first gang is willing to check out the food. I give hugs to the second gang and look around. Ugh, both pens have reached the yeechy level. At some point, pulling dirty towels and adding clean ones just doesn’t work any more. I used to get a few days, then a couple of days and now I’m down to a day and a half at best before I need to take the whole thing apart and replace it all.

Begin the procedure. Let the first gang out to cause mayhem and destruction in the living room while I clean their pen. Remove a heavy quilt and two blankets plus 8-10 towels. Shake each piece to remove bits of litter, spilled food and nasty chunks of stuck on poop that strayed from the litter box. While shaking vigorously, remember to keep mouth shut to avoid ingesting flying debris. Upon completion of shaking, fling towards the laundry room. Lay down another quilt, blanket and cover with towels. Then, the biggest ick of them all, carrying the heavy, heavy bin of stinky litter out into the woods and flinging it. Back in the house, find the next 50 pound bag of litter, stagger up the steps and dump half into the bin. Corral the gang that are having a delightful time in the mostly unexplored living room and persuade them a nice clean pen is where they want to be. They are not convinced and express their disapproval with a continuation of their seagull interpretation.

Phew!

Drat!

There are TWO pens and another 10 puppies. Repeat the process. The pile of dirty blankets/towels is ginormous.

Washer is loaded, puppies are contained, now I can go down to my work space and get going on what I need to do today.

Seriously? I enter the room, anxious to get working and am greeted with an unholy mess. My “good” dogs, a five year old, an eight year old and I thought a reasonably well behaved year old youngster pushed their way into the gated area containing all my sewing apparatus and computer. And, there was a full box of tissues. Anyone who knows whippets knows the shredding addiction is triggered simply by the sight of a box of tissues. It must have been a full blown shredding frenzy. Bits and pieces of trim and worse yet, a box of custom made wooden buttons at a dollar a button are mixed and mingled with the remains of the tissues. I can’t just sweep it up and throw it away – I have to go through every bit of the pile to harvest any still intact buttons and figure out if anything else of value is there. I’m pretty sure there were thirty buttons. I find six.

So how was your day?

Whippets three for a buck, first come first serve.