Last year I published a blog post expressing my irritation with dog parents who constantly gripe about their fur-kid's "less than desirable behaviors." I was mostly referring to the chewing of shoes, sofa cushions, and other valuable items. These pet parents would take a photo of the chewed up shoes or pile of books and complain about how "bad their dog is" or make comments like "This is the last straw..."
When I see posts like this, I often reply and explain that it's not "the dog's fault." This type of behavior is because the dog parent failed in one area or another. The dog parent failed to dog-proof their home. The dog parent has no idea what separation anxiety is. The dog parent doesn't have enough time to spend with their fur-kid. The dog parent isn't in-tuned with Fido. The list goes on and on and on.
There's a multitude of reasons why dogs chew shoes, sofa cushions, and spreads the entire contents of the trash throughout the house.
Prior to adopting Willa on March 2nd of this year, Lisa and I had it fairly easy. None of our kids got into destructive mischief. Coco will occasionally chew a hole in one of Lisa's socks. Lobo likes to pee on the pile of dirty laundry or a hoodie that's hanging on the kitchen chair low enough to touch the floor. Sophie has been known to steal the cream cheese off a bagel every now and then.
Then, along came Willa.
She's a purebred Jack Russell. She's very active, mischievous, smart, sneaky, and she does her best to get anyone to play with her. That includes Lisa, her siblings, and myself.
Willa also doesn't like being separated from any of us. She wants to be with her family at all times. She hates any type of gate.
Willa has the game of fetch mastered. She'll place whatever toy she wants to play fetch with by your feet or on your lap. If you're not aware of the toy she's giving you to play fetch, she makes a cute little noise to get your attention.
Most of the time, I stop what I'm doing and play fetch with her. However, once in a great while, I'm not able to immediately divert my attention from what I'm working on to play fetch.
"Give Mommy a few minutes to finish this up, WillaBean, and then we'll play fetch..."
At that point, she gives me a look and walks away with attitude. That look and attitude combined lets me know she's going to retaliate.
It's actually kind of cute...
Yesterday, that happened. I was trying to get everything done before Lisa arrived home from work. Housework. Work stuff. Meal prep. Etc...
It was important to me that I got it done because Lisa has been having a hard time. Our Grammy Violette passed away 2 days ago. On top of that, Lisa applied for a promotion at work and had to go through 2 interviews.
Now, we wait.
Willa wanted to play fetch. I had already played several games of fetch with her in the morning. I was focused on what I was doing. I wanted to stay focused.
"Give Mommy a half hour, Willa. Then we'll play a double game of fetch..."
Willa gave me the look and it was saturated with attitude. She "'trotted" off into another room.
After 15 minutes, I realized things were quiet. Too quiet.
I walked into the home office and discovered one of my fabric dolls in the middle of the home office floor. The button eyes were ripped off. Most of the hair was ripped out. The sweater was almost taken off. The shoes on the doll were de-threaded. Willa's fetch toy was laying beside of the tattered fabric doll.
Willa was on the love seat in the home office. Staring at me. Front paws cordially crossed.
I wasn't exactly happy about the scene, but I didn't get angry. In fact, I showed very little emotion as I picked up the yarn, buttons, thread, and bits of fabric.
After everything was picked up, I sat beside Willa. She got on my lap and stood on her hind legs. She placed one paw on my left shoulder, one on my right. Slathered my face with juicy kisses.
"Oh, sweet Willa. I guess I need to put my dolls out of your reach, huh?"
I wasn't mad.
It was my own fault.
She's done stuff like this before when I didn't immediately drop what I was doing to play fetch.
There's a hole in our new comforter.
She chewed holes in one of the doggy beds and pulled stuffing out.
She relocates the doggy beds in the kitchen.
She drags all the blankets off the love seat, in the home office, and from her crate and piles them in the middle of the floor.
She takes all of the toys out of the doggy toy boxes and spreads them throughout the house.
The list goes on.
Willa has a big personality.
She lets us know when she won't tolerate being put on hold.
Exhale...
The life of a Dog Mom.
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