Retirement is a week filled with Saturdays and Sundays interrupted only occasionally by a holiday.

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Saturday, July 14, 2007

I'm No Dog Whisperer

So here I am at my sister Lynn's house with my mom and their dog Amber. My mom seems to be enjoying my company...Amber, however, is another story. She's been moping around the house since I got here yesterday morning and it's obvious to me that she doesn't think I'm an adequate substitute for her loving, now-camping family. I've stayed with her before and I know there's usually a breaking in period for me as far as she's concerned so I'm hoping she will come to terms with the fact that I'm "it" until the family gets back late Monday.

Now I know very little about dogs. Growing up in a New York garden apartment, we were not permitted to have dogs or cats so I wasn't blessed with a fun pet as a child. Oh...I had fish and turtles and Lynn had a hamster but you really couldn't "talk" or play with them. I'd always wanted a dog and I thought, when I became an adult, I would surely get one. Well, adulthood came and still no dog. When I was working, I didn't think it was fair that a dog would be home alone all day and then, when we retired, I was concerned about what to do with a dog when we traveled. So...after all these years, I'm still dog-less and clueless about them.

Back to the present. This morning I took Amber out bright and early to do her "business" and, instead, she threw up twice in the backyard. I'm hoping it was just a little tummy trouble (maybe from being upset about being left behind) and she will be fine but I guess I need to keep an eye on her today...she does seem a little lethargic. Lynn left me the vet's information in case I run into trouble but I don't want to be too hasty about taking her in when it might be nothing serious. Oh well, Hubby grew up with several dogs so I guess I can always call him for a little advice if I need some. If only Amber could talk and tell me what's wrong. Sigh...

UPDATE: Yea...Amber. As soon as Mom got up, Amber suddenly became perkier and even had a game of tug-of-war with me. I guess seeing a really familiar face helped her disposition. And most importantly, Amber just got finished doing her "business" in the backyard. Whew!!! Who ever thought the highlight of my blog today would be a discussion about dog poop?!?!?!

12 comments:

Renee Nefe said...

Dogs do tend to get mopy when their owners are away. I know that Lilly is sightly upset that DH & DD aren't here right now...she is kinda glued to me to make sure I don't leave her...which will be funny when I go out shopping her soon.

At least you have Mom there for you.

I'm guessing that Amber isn't a good camper. We take Lilly with us and she loves it. Course she's the self-appointed official campground cleaner. And since DH doesn't come with us...I feel better having her around. I once had the campground host tell me it was very good that I had her because they had recently seen Mountain Lions in the area and her barking and smell might keep the lions away. We never saw any critters other than chipmunks...who were all much faster than Lilly.

Empress Bee (of the high sea) said...

heck i thought you were going to tell me your mom did hers! ha ha, oh well, good for amber!

smiles, bee

Linda said...

Good thing your Mom is a familiar face or you might be calling the vet right now!

At least Amber gave you something different to blog about today!

meno said...

Dogs are pack animals, and Amber's pack has left without her. How would you feel? Poor baby!

ms chica said...

I'm glad that you and Amber reached a compromise on this. Pets, like Seniors, don't accept changes very well. My two are rather fickle about my absence. They won't let me out of their sight when I return home from a four day trip, and they don't have the excuse of being pack animals.

Ralph said...

I grew up with dogs (Boris, Maggy and Tasha), and they got weird when people left for awhile...and how they forgot about it whn you got back. Don't believe that cats are any better at this. We'd go to Cape Cod, and Patti's mom would visit Sir Humphrey to feed him. When we got home, Hump would ME-OW very loudly at Patti, a sort of adminition showing his displeasure at our leaving him. He would be more underfoot than usual for a few days - to prevent us from leaving him again?

Patti said...

I was going to say what Linda said. Amber gave you a great topic to blog about. What kind of doggie?

Michele said...

Yep, I'm pretty clueless about dogs and if I saw a dog moping around like Amber, I think my first instinct would be to rush them to the Vet but then I tend to panic so obviously you are doing just fine! "Crappy" experience for you but hey, it did produce a pretty good post, look at all the comments ya got!!

Susie said...

Sounds like Amber is missing "her people" . I'm not a dog person, but I've heard that dogs do that.
Hope you enjoy your time with your Mom..
xo

Special K ~Toni said...

I have days when my kids 'doing their business' is the highlight! Glad Amber isn't sick!

rosemary said...

What else should one's day revolve around but the pets and their poop? Mine do. Violet is a throwerupper in the morning as is Penny some days. Amber just had to make a statement, get you all worried, then she was OK. She won.

Anonymous said...

Patti, Amber is an amber colored Lab and truly a wonderful dog with the patience of a saint. She and 10 really love to play together.

Joan, who would have thought mom would mean so much to a dog, or better yet, who would have thought a dog would mean so much to mom. Is this the same aunt I grew up with????