Blood, Pee and Poop Everywhere!

I've hardly had a moment to myself up here at the Rainbow Bridge since I volunteered to help with the dogs in the path of the hurricanes. Those poor dogaroons down there really need what our angel dog team is doing to help calm their fears. It's rewarding work but I feel a little guilty for not being around for my baby brother, Levi. His problem is getting worse.

Levi will be nine months old at the end of the month and he's been housebroke for five of those months but it's been raining a lot where Mom and Dad live and Levi is giving Mom fits about going outside when it's raining and when the dirt in the dog yard is wet. He's even started peeing and popping on the deck. He'll also ask to go out one door and when he finds out it's raining there, he'll run to another outside door and ask to go out, thinking it might not be raining on the other side of the house. Mom has gone back to square one and is sitting outside with him until he goes where he's suppose to go, regardless of the rain on his back or the wet dirt under his paws. He's making progress. This morning he peed on the rubber mat at the bottom of the deck steps and pooped while squatting on my grave stones. That kid has scrambled eggs for brains when it comes to respect for the dead.

Mom's got the right idea about going back to square one, and I'm sure the problem will work itself out, but I did feel sorry for her yesterday. She woke up with Dad saying the S word over and over again. At first she thought he was trying to pull on his pants while Levi was trying to pull them off. But the tone of the word was different this time, not filled with laughter but panic stricken instead. He'd transferred to his wheelchair, cut his foot and had bled all over the carpeting from the bed to the bathroom and Levi was licking it up. Dad is taking a blood thinner so there was a LOT of blood. Mom jumped out of bed---as much as an old person can jump with arthritic joints---to get Dad and the floors cleaned up and to shut Levi out of the master bedroom while she worked. It took a long time and in the meantime Levi pooped and peed in the living room. That was not really his fault given the circumstances but still it wasn't a great way for Mom to start her day.

So tomorrow the carpet cleaners are coming. Between having the blood removed and sanitized—a $95 requirement for "health reasons so says the cleaning company"---and having the floors in three rooms cleaned and the pets stains deodorized that have accumulated since Levi joined the family it will cost Mom $239 total. If I had time, I'd mental telepathy a little humor down to Mom and remind her that puppy stains might be a good reason to get the hardwood floor she wants installed. What the heck, I'll take the time. What's my angel-brother going to do if I show up late for work? Kill me? I'm already dead. ©

.

Busy Little Boy

The windowsills at our house are all very low, only eighteen inches off the floor plus there are three doors with glass panels that are even lower to the floor. A fourth door is solid and it goes to the garage and to a service door that leads to the deck and dog yard. Mom always uses that solid door to take Levi outside.

These past two weeks of house breaking nirvana Levi figured out the best way to tell Mom he has to go outside is to scratch on one of the three glass paneled doors. From her computer wardrobe in the kitchen she can see two of those doors and hear him at the third so it wasn't such a bad plan for my baby brother to devise for himself. Between Mom keeping him on a schedule that fits with Mom and Dad's life style and Levi finally figuring out how to talk to Mom about his bodily urges I'm giving them both A+'s and declaring they can move to the next hurdle in growing Levi into a great furry kid.

Next on the puppy breaking list is biting or grabbing at anything that remotely moves. Bathrobes that flow behind Mom as she walks, Dad's pants as he tries to put them on---you name it, if it's an article of clothing Levi wants it in his mouth. Our dad is right side paralyzed but getting him self dressed is something he learned to accomplish a long time ago. Even so, it's a long process and thus enters Levi to make it even longer. Levi pulls on socks and pant legs as Dad tries one-handed to thread them in place. Mom hears Dad laughing from the bedroom and when he gets to the part where he says one of the few words in his vocabulary---"shit"---Mom goes in to rescue Dad and give Levi a puppy approved toy to chew.

When I was on earth, I had a thing for socks, too. I stole Mom's whenever I could and would take them all through the house. After Dad's stroke I never, ever took dad's socks again even though he always leaves them on the floor. Levi hasn't learned to respect Dad's uniqueness and limitations yet. His dad comes with wheels---doesn't everyone's, he thinks. So along with the regular puppy training stuff, Levi has extra stuff to learn but he's up for challenge. He's a smart little bugger, even if he did cause Mom to 'redecorate' the place now that he's learned how to snatch things off the table tops. Out of the deck he even manages to get himself in trouble. He tries to help with dead heading the flowers only he hasn't got the part about 'dead' right yet and picks the pretty ones instead. But what's really going to get Mom shaking her head is when she figures out that Levi took a snail ceramic off one of the windowsills and "buried" it in the guest bathroom. He's a busy little boy. ©

It's All Mom's Fault!

I shouldn't laugh at Mom. I really shouldn't but she can be an airhead sometimes. Yesterday she got up promptly at eight to take little Levi outside. Right away he peed and she got all happy-wiggly with him, human style, making him feel good for doing his job so quickly and in the right place. So far so good, right? Then she called him up the steps from the dog yard and he came but he didn't want to go in the house. He plunked his little butt down on the deck and here's where Mom made a big mistake. She picked him up and made him come in the house anyway and he promptly pooped on the kitchen floor. Levi is going to be SO confused if Mom doesn't learn to read his very obvious body language soon. Jeez, a blind monk on a mountain top could have seen that one coming. Hello! It was morning and he'd had another poop and pee free night.

Levi is getting five minute training sessions several times a day. He almost has it mastered to come when called, sit when asked and is no longer resisting walking on a leash...well, accept for when he wants to poop and Mom has her blinders on. Yesterday he even went to the door for the first time and sat down waiting for his leash to be attached so he could go outside. Fortunately, Mom saw him do it. Holly molly, she needs to find a better way for him to let her know its poop and pee time in the old corral---and quickly. She can't always be near the laundry room to see him sit patiently waiting for her to open the door. Oh, and add this to little Levi's list of accomplishments: he finally figured out how to go down as well as up the required three steps off the deck.

Speaking of corrals, when I was earth bound I never had an issue with my bathroom duty yard being covered over with shredded bark, but Levi does. He goes out there and tries to chew on every single piece of bark, all 300 pounds of them. Mom got so exasperated trying to dig bark back out of his mouth she finally took a rake and rounded up all the bark she could into one corner. That exposing the dirt which created another fun activity for Levi---rolling in the mud and getting himself tangled up in his retractable leash. He's so little that he can fit through the slats of the fence so he has to be leashed out there for now. I sure gave Mom a run for her money when I was Levi's age---I was bullheaded compared to him---but he's no slouch at creating his own brand of doggie drama.

Every day at tea time when I come to the Rainbow Bridge to check up on my humans, I meet the nicest canines doing the same thing. We laugh and cry with our families and trade stories about our time on earth, but not in a sad way. We are happy and contented here because even though our humans don't always know it, we're still with them in spirit. ©

.