Flurry entered our lives because of some splendid advance planning by a neighbor:
Last Thursday late-afternoon a neighbor (Paul) showed up at the door with a request. His wife was already in England and he was scheduled to fly out Friday evening to join her for three weeks. Would we mind boarding his dog (Flurry) for them? (The lovely lady is not spayed and her shots were not all up to date.)
We leashed our tribe up and took them out to meet the lady on neutral ground – the street. Fletcher of course went lumbering up to instigate play – and scared the poor girl half to death. Buster did his obligatory Alfa dog growl and then walked away; Bonnie went over, gave a sniff, went about other business; Mikey barked at a distance then just ignored her. So, it initially looked like we could give it a try. Woody was scheduled to work 10 – 6:30 the following day, I had a Dr. appointment at 11 and Paul had to leave for the airport by 6. I didn’t want to try to wrangle a five dog meet-and-greet in my living room alone, so Woody agreed to take his dinner break from 3-3:30 and dash home. Paul said he would bring Flurry’s special food (she has allergies) and her favorite blanket over at 2:30, I would pick-up Woody at 3 and he could bring Flurry around at 3:10.
(I didn’t dare ask what back-up plans he had – local kennel space, when available would run about $800 for a three week stay, and his vet better be ready to give her her shots scheduled for the next-day morning.)
Naturally, Woody’s management had a “problem” that needed his urgent attention, and no one else could do the work so they refused to allow him to take his union contract required dinner break. The corporate offices had been days late in providing data to the local stores, but the district manager was demanding that the local store manager get his report submitted by 4 PM, no matter what.
So… I went for broke; locked our tribe in my bedroom; brought Flurry into the house, left her leash on and let her explore about for a bit. I then let Fletcher and Mikey out and made sure there was no altercations then loosed the blondes (Bonnie and Buster). We all taught Flurry to use the doggie door (push her out, push her in and hope she’ll figure it out. The next morning I did find a small puddle on the kitchen floor and Flurry was no where to be found – she was outside sitting on the stoop waiting to see if she would allowed back in! And that was the end of the house breaking lessons.
der Brucer
