Dog/house sitting

Our hosts, Richard and Luis, have left for a well deserved vacation.  We are dog/house sitting.  They are not one bit worried about the house, but the dogs . . . worried.  These dogs are their babies.  The dogs are pampered, run the house, and so cute you will forgive them anything.   We know what to feed them and when.  We know where they like to be petted.  If they won’t eat or are moping around, we are to call Luis’ mom to come get them.  They adore her.

We planned to stay in our end of the house and let the dogs sleep with us.  The closer to trip time, the more we heard “you should sleep in our suite, your guests should sleep upstairs, it is so nice up there”.  Translation, the dogs will be unhappy if they can’t stay in their regular space.  Last night we stayed in the master suite.  This did not go real well.

One dog, Benito, sleeps on the couch at the foot of the bed, the other, Panchito, in the bed under the covers.  Surprise, Benito jumps up on the bed.  We settle down, turn off the TV and lights, the dogs and Marty are asleep.  I am starting to doze when I hear it, beep. 

Then in a couple of minutes again beep.  The tried and true rule of smoke alarms is happening:  smoke alarm batteries only need replacing after midnight.  We get up, locate which one is beeping and Marty puts in a new battery.  As he finishes, another alarm starts beeping.  He replaces that one.  We again go to bed.  Just as I start to doze off, I hear beep beep.  That means tonight we will have another one to replace.

At 4:00 Panchito needed to go out.  I get up with him and let him out.  He just wanted to check if the lizards were out yet.  ( he is our great hunter)  I get him back in, go to bed again.  At 5:00 he wants out again.  No!  Stay!

When Marty got up, he took a picture of our bedmates.   White one on left, Panchito,  Benito is a light tan on the right.  Blob at top is me.

The early morning went better.  The dogs had breakfast,  a walk with Marty, and had treats.  They went back upstairs and ignored us.

Marty was working outside in the yard.  Panchito wanted to join him.  I heard whining and yips.  I let him out into the courtyard.

He stood at the gate and tried to see Marty.  Every now and then he would look back at me as if saying open the gate. 

And Benito???

He is curled up on my pillow.  He needs his rest after that walk.

I let Panchito out on the back porch and he could see Marty down the hill.  If Marty moved, Panchito would move down the porch with him.

When I started fixing lunch both dogs checked if I had dropped any meat.  Nope.  Well , back to waiting for Marty.

                                                                    

They hear Marty coming down the hall.  Ears up, tails starting to wag.

He’s here!  He’s here!

Looks as if they will accept us as their substitute humans to boss around.  Marty is their favorite, until bedtime.  They both slept on my side. 

Tomorrow, we will see how that goes.  One day at a time, one day at a time.