Dog-sitting...

... and bird sitting. While our friends J & J were off visiting with their grandchildren and Mickey Mouse, I was taking care of their little dog and their cockateil. J gave me their feeding instructions and showed me where the most important things in the house were kept-- the doggie-treats.

As soon as I pulled up into the driveway each time, I could hear Margaret Hatcher (the cockateil) screeching out from her cage in one of the front rooms. She had a companion (Winston Chirphill) but he is now nesting in that big birdcage in the sky. Margaret isn't the friendliest of birds.... J told me if I put my fingers too close to her, she would bite. I didn't feel like testing Margaret on that, so I kept my finger-tips at a safe distance when I gave her more birdseed and water. I talked to her each time I went in the house, and she just sat there on her perch looking at me with that tilted-head thing that all birds do.

Poor Sam (the little Yorkie) didn't know what to think that first day when I came into the house. He ran to the back door when he heard me come in, but when he saw me, he just stopped running and stood there looking at me. I'm sure he knew who I was, but I'm also sure that he didn't expect to see me. Well, why the heck are you here and what have you done with my momma?!

By the second day, Sam just accepted the fact that it was me at the door and not his 'real people.' He would run up and greet me, giving me that tooth-full doggie-smile of his, and wait to be fed. I also got Sam to follow me around the backyard every time I went up there, to make sure he was getting enough exercise. He has his own little doggie-door and he lets himself in and out when he has to, but I wanted to make sure he got a nice little walk three times each day. The first time around the yard, I had to keep calling him to make sure he would follow me. By the second or third time, Sam was walking in front of me instead of six feet behind me, so I think he liked those little excursions around the pool.

Taking care of Sam was a nice little doggie-fix, and of course it made me think of Gracie. I kept calling Sam "Sammy-Girl' because I'd been saying 'Gracie-Girl' for over 14 years. I don't think Sam minded being called a girl as long as I had a little doggie-treat in my hand for him.

We don't talk about getting another dog anymore, which is fine. Having another dog would be having something else to take care of, and with the three cats and the five chickens, that's quite enough for the time being. As it is, we've made pet-sitting arrangements with friends J & J-- we'll take care of Sam and Margaret when they go away, and they'll take care of our furred and feathered 'kids' when we go away. It's a wonderful arrangement, but I don't want to be adding a dog into the mix here because our 'kid total' is already higher than J & J's.

I just ran all of the above through the spell-checker thing. Apparently, the words cockateil and doggie are not words. I can't swear by 'cockateil' but there's an old song that goes "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window....."