Sunday, October 14, 2018

Day 37

Today was off to a weird start. I woke up at 8:01 am and panicked because I thought it was Monday. (It wasn't.) On Monday, I have to be out of the house by 8:00 because I am taking Scooter to Camp Bow Wow before heading off to volunteer at Junior League's Hollydays. Waking up at 8:01 is not conducive to being out of the house at 8:00 am. Fortunately, today was Sunday.

Once I realized I had the day off, I started my lazy morning routine of checking Facebook, playing my silly games, and rolling over to doze off for a bit. When I did eventually get out of bed and walk to the front of the house around 9:45 am, I found that Scooter had been up to mischief. Specifically, she had been through our trash can and spread trash throughout the front part of our house. She had also licked the sauce containers from our Greek takeout on Tuesday clean...yikes. So, I did what I had to do, and I yelled at Scooter and told her that what she did was bad. I've never yelled at her. Then, I tried to put her in time out (in her crate in the closet) but she was not cooperative when I tried to make her go in the crate. She did lie down in shame, and I decided that was good enough. I also made the mental decision that I would crate her when I went back and forth to Alexandria to drop off the trailer we borrowed (about 4.5 hours round trip) and I would limit her treats today. I try to limit her treats most days, but Richard likes to give her treats multiple times per day because she deserves them. (She usually does deserve them.)

When I worked at LSMSA, I would sometimes take it personally when students (especially students on my hall) made poor choices, and I had to remind myself that their choices weren't about me. They didn't do whatever they did to make me mad; in fact, they probably weren't even thinking about me at all other than possibly hoping I wouldn't drive or walk by whenever they were doing whatever they were doing. I gave myself that reminder many times when I thought "Maybe if I had been a better or more observant SLA, they wouldn't have made this choice," but their actions were probably not a result of my neglect or failure to pay attention some particular need they had. 

I would like to think that Scooter's poor choice today was, like the poor choices of my former students, completely unrelated to anything I have done or not done. Richard worries that we are not feeding her enough, despite the multiple treats he gives her every day, so we are going to up her food intake a little and see if that keeps her out of the trash can. 

Pictured: Richard and Scooter on our dog-friendly date night. Life was simpler before she was a trash strewer.

Something that made today great: I did a little bit of straightening up and organizing, so our house is starting to be put back together again. We still have work to do, but we are getting there.
Time I woke up: 8:01 am 

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