Dog Days of Winter???

As some of you know it has been two weeks since we became the all American family by adding a dog to the mix. Yes, Snickers is now a full time resident at Casa de Crazy. Honestly, it has been a peaceful transition and I have been pleasantly surprised. I guess I need to give you a little background info on the Snick-man. He is a 4 year old Schnoodle (part schnauzer/part poodle). He is crate trained and for anyone who has ever had a dog or puppy who was not, trust me this is a blessing. As I mentioned, the transition has been peaceful, but that does not mean it hasn’t been hilarious!

Snickers arrived on a Wednesday. This is important, why? Well, it’s because Wednesday is a church night. What’s my point? Well, Snickers is not necessarily a “people” dog. He does not “mesh” well with strangers. Yes, I was a stranger to him at first, but we hit it off well and I became his best friend within the first hour. Did I mention that he likes women better than men? Oh yes! Do you see where this is going?

Mark called me later on that Wednesday afternoon and told me that he would possibly have a conference call later that evening and he would not be at church, but would see me at home. Uh Oh! I then had to explain to my husband, who I had to “convince” to get the dog in the first place, that he could not go home before me that night. I told him that if he got home before me he could NOT go in the house! He very calmly ask me, “why?”. I told him that he was a stranger to Snickers and I had to be in the house with Snickers before he could come inside. (Can’t you just imagine what Mark is thinking by this time.)

So Wednesday night arrived and I was at church. It was around 8:00pm when my cell phone rang, so under the circumstances I answered it. It was Mark. The conversation went a little something like this:

Me: “Hello”
Mark: “Hey, where are you?”
Me: (Thinking to myself…DUH!) “I’m at church. Where are you?”
Mark: “I am in my car, sitting in the driveway waiting on you to come home.”
Me: “Ha! Ha! Ha!…I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

I quickly formulated a plan for getting Mark in the house, without being eaten alive by the massive white puff ball also known as Snickers. I went into the house first and took Snickers out the garage door to go “pee pee potty”. Mark and the kids then tip toed around to the front door and went inside. Snickers and I returned from the potty break and lets just say that it is a good thing Snickers went potty first. Snickers went nuts! He growled and barked and jumped. Mark handled it very well! He walked over to the fridge, got a piece of cheese and gave it to the dog. Snickers sucked the cheese right down and then became strangely calm. Mark looked down at Snickers and said “Hello dog, my name is Mark, I make the money around here, I buy the cheese…you will like me!” Mark and Snickers now have an understanding.

My mom could use a little of that understanding. On Snickers second day at Casa de Crazy things went fairly well until the early evening. The dog and I were in the laundry room when I heard the kids say something to me about Nana (my mom). I could not hear exactly what they said, but I soon found out. We came out of the laundry room and into the living room and there sat my mom! Snickers flew over to her (this dog is FAST, and he is a JUMPER) and started barking and snarling at her and then he started jumping at her face and snipping at her! What did I do you might be asking? I stood in the doorway and laughed until I snorted. If I had been drinking something, this would be one of those times it would come out my nose. My mom threw her hands up in surrender and started screaming…”Get your dog, Stef!” “Get your dog!” Needless to say, mom hasn’t come around much lately!

Yes, it is the dog days of winter around these parts and it just gets more interesting everyday!