Jake and Fritz and Freddie Part 2

In my last post I said we were dogsitting my Dad's dogs, Fritz and Freddie.  It was a long, long night.  Not because of F & F but because of Jake.....

Fritz is just a little puppy and sometimes still has to get up in the middle of the night.  Having a puppy is such great preparation for having a baby, but that's another story sometime.  Anyway, Jeff went to bed at 10 but I kept the boys up and let them play.  I mean, after all, I'm an experienced owner and know all about puppies now, right?  But there was one thing I forgot....don't let puppies (or dogs) drink water after a certain time in the evening.  The dogs played out in the back and drank pool water.  I didn't catch them before they started slurping but it was early enough in the evening, I thought it would be ok.  But then when it was getting late, I made a rookie mistake.  I forgot to take the water bowl up.  Picture it in kind of a slow motion sequence in a movie.  I heard the heavy slurping of the dogs.....I turned my head....jumped off the couch and yelled, "Nooooo!"  I ran to the bowl, but ahh, too late.  Oh well, maybe they could hold it during the night.

At around 11:00, I was pooped and put Jake in his kennel, Fritz in his kennel and Freddie on our bed.  (did I mention that Freddie is an incredibly spoiled dog that likes to sleep on the bed?  But really, once he's asleep, that's it.  We don't hear from him until morning).  Anyway, I'm not a good sleeper and finally dozed off around midnight.  At 3:30 am, I heard Fritz squeaking.  Yes, it was potty time.  I let Fritz out of his kennel and Jake out of his and they both go outside.  I have to go outside with Jake at night because he barks.  He barks at his shadow, he barks at the dead palm tree (stupid freeze), he barks at the patio chair.  And barking at 3:30 in the morning will not get a person a friendly wave from their neighbors the next morning.  Fritz went out, squats, comes right back to me and squeaks to be let inside.  Jake decided it's pretty nice outside and there's a leaf floating in the pool that needs to be checked out.  He jumped in and immediatley got spooked by the leaf and jumped back out.  It's 3:30 in the morning! Get out of the pool!  I started whispering his name in the most firm way I knew how but that got me nowhere.  I kept whispering/screaming "front!" which still doesn't work for him unless he's hungry and he's 100% sure I have a treat in hand.  I got the flashlight and was trying to coax him in.  Nothing.  Then he started barking.  Oh, that's just great.  Sorry neighbors, please don't hate me.  I was actually hoping maybe they thought it was someone else's dog.  Maybe I could casually say, "Hey, have you heard so and so's dog?  What a pest, huh?"   Eventually, after threats and bribery, I got him back in the house.  At some point in all this, Freddie came out of my bedroom to join the fun but he just looked at all of us with a rather bored "you silly, silly people" look on his face and yawned alot.  Ok, everyone has peed, time to go back to bed.  It's 4:00 in the morning and I've only had 3 1/2 hours of sleep up to this point.  Fritz was ready to go back into his kennel and Freddie will go anywhere I go, but Jake, no way was he going in his kennel.  He'd had a nap and was ready to go.  I chased him around the living room table a few times and thought, fine, he'll just play a few minutes and settle down and I'll put him back in.  Eventually Jake got Fritz to play with him and they ran around and played tug of war with a toy and other things that would have been cute had it not been at some insane hour of the morning.  I tried watching tv for awhile but since I didn't need Melissa Gilbert's hair products or a machine that will give me super abs in just 10 days (well, ok, I do need that) I gave it up.  The next thing I knew, I woke up at 6:30 on the sofa, scrunched up in a little ball with Freddie on one foot and Fritz on top of my leg.  Jake was asleep by the fireplace.

When Dad and Lela came to pick up the dogs that afternoon, Dad started apologizing when he walked in the door.  He was sure Fritz kept me up all night.  I kept trying to assure him, his dogs weren't the problem.  As they were leaving, Dad said anytime we wanted them to keep Jake, just let them know.  I tried to get them to take him that night but for some reason, they thought I was joking and drove off without him. 

Jake and Fritz and Freddie

We have another puppy.....for 24 hours.  Lela surprised Dad a few weeks ago with another dog to keep their dog, Freddie, company.  Dad named him Fritz and he's a mini dachshund like Freddie.  Several posts ago I wrote about Jake and Freddie's personalities and if Freddie could talk, he would sound like a stuffy Frenchman.  I still think that.  But Fritz is just the opposite.  I think he would sound like Barney Fife.

Dad and Lela have gone to visit friends for 24 hours.  It's Fritz's first night away from home.  I think Dad is way more worried about him than any of us are. Dad walked in with enough supplies to last the dogs a week.  I actually thought I misunderstood and maybe they were going to be gone longer than one night but no, it's just one night.  After he unloaded a dog bed (with an afghan big enough to be a queen size bedspread), a kennel, a bag of toys, a plastic container with at least 5 days of food, 5 rawhide bones, and 2 leashes, he walked slowly out the door and I'm not sure, but I might have seen him tear up a bit.  Freddie stayed at the window next to the door and watched (he may have been tearing up too).  Fritz, on the other hand, was ready to play and Jake was thrilled, thinking we got him a new, living, chew toy.  And off they went.   But Freddie, in his true stuffy Frenchman attitude, just jumped up on the sofa next to me and  watched them running circles around the living room.  He looked down on them as if he believed he was far too superior to behave in such a manner.  Fritz and Jake didn't seem to care about what he thought.  Fritz was too busy trying to hang from Jake's beard and Jake was too busy trying to bat him around like a dirty sock.

So, they've been here 6 hours and so far, so good.  But we haven't gone to bed yet.  Dad warned us that Fritz squeaks alot at night.  We'll see how it goes.....