Susan C. Daffron

Award-winning fiction & nonfiction author

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July 30, 2005 By Susan Daffron

You Know You’ve Had Dogs for a Long Time When…

This week has been what I call a Nature’s Miracle week. For those who don’t know, Nature’s Miracle is an enzymatic cleaner that removes all bad smells after your pet has produced something nasty that you need to clean up.

This week was rife with noxious effluent, so I spent a lot of quality time with the bottle of Nature’s Miracle. Although there were other clean up moments, our golden retriever, Tika, wins the Most Annoying award for her nocturnal gak fest.

Tika sleeps on the top bunk of our doggie dog bunk beds and at 12:33 am, I woke to a giant thud as she leapt down from her bed. I told her to get back in her bed, and rolled over when I heard her land back in her nest. (She does jump down sometimes for no apparent reason.) However, a few minutes later, I heard another bigger, seemingly more anxious thud as she hit the ground again.

This time, I got out of bed. Tika leaped back up into her bed and with a mighty BLAP, deposited the remnants of her dinner in her bed. I was not pleased, but it was probably better than blapping on the carpet. I also now was definitely awake. I did some clean up and chucked her bedding in the washer. After returning to my bed, I hoped to get some sleep.

Unfortunately, Tika was stressed by the whole experience and proceeded to stand up, stare at me, turn around and lie down. She did this about 700 times, which caused quite a bit of noise because her toenails are long and she isn’t particularly graceful as she clatters down.

After about 20 minutes of this activity, I realized I wasn’t going to get ANY sleep if Tika remained in the room. So I took her downstairs where she spent the rest of the evening in the hall, periodically whining.

For those who think I might be heartless, doggie digestive distress doesn’t necessarily mean much. Both Tika and Cami have unreasonably sensitive digestive systems and I can generally tell when they are actually sick versus an "oops, I ate something gross" blap event. I guess the fact that I wasn’t worried about Tika’s tummy turmoil and the fact that I buy Nature’s Miracle in the gallon size are both signs that I’ve had dogs for a long time.

Filed Under: Furry Thoughts, Pet Tails Tagged With: annoying, barf, bunk bed, Tika

About Susan Daffron

Susan Daffron is the author of the Alpine Grove Romantic Comedies, the Jennings & O'Shea mysteries, and multiple award-winning nonfiction books, including several about pets and animal rescue. Check out all her books on her Amazon Author page.

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