P.O.'ed Literally

Again I've been slacking on updates, but per a special request for a new blog post (K.I. this is for you) here we go.

We've still been spending a lot of time outside enjoying the weather. We had to add a new feature to our yard for the little miss. I have this lovely little garden leading to the pool which features a pea gravel path. It's all shady and cool there so no surprise that the dogs enjoy hanging out there. But I did get a surprise when I went to check on LeeLoo and found her not just digging in the pea gravel but digging and shredding the plastic liner under the path. I yelled and she froze like a deer in the headlights for all of about 2 seconds then she resumed her antics. I ended up having to chase her out of there. After catching her destroying the path 4 or 5 times, I knew I needed to do something. So I went and got her a sandbox, hey if she wants to dig I'll give her a harmless place to do so. It was an immediate hit.

Now of course nothing works out perfectly at our house. A few days after we got the sandbox, we had a torrential down pour and the sandbox was filled with about 2 inches of muddy, sand water which LeeLoo thought was amazingly fun. She snorkeled, she dug, she splashed, she was having the time of her life. At first, I'm freaking out watching the brown mud water splash all over her beautiful white coat, thinking about the house I just cleaned, but I'm the mom who dug a hole in the backyard to make a mud puddle for her 1 year old to play in because boys like dirt. God made dirt, so dirt won't hurt right, plus it washes off. I realized that since she loves the hose, I'd just spray her down when she was done and that would be that. Again, there I go thinking things will run smoothly...I'm just a glutton for punishment. That day the hose was the most horrible thing in the world and she wasn't letting me spray her. So bath time for LeeLoo. I'm not sure who was more upset her or I, like I said I had cleaned all day and my back was killing me so playing linebacker with the puppy in the tub wasn't on my top list of things to do. Eh, it could have been worse, it didn't take to long and since she was mad at me, she took a nice long nap afterwards. Look at how mad she is.

Okay so you're probably wondering what the title is all about. She played in the sand and got a bath nothing to do with being pissed off. Well I'm just giving you a little background of what's been going on and her getting mad about her bath really does tie it together once I explain. Like I said when she gets mad because of a bath, swimming or getting yelled at she glares a little then goes to sleep. Well we really pissed her off the other day.

I want to point out that from the day she came home, she has never been left alone. Someone has always been with her; me, Chuckie, Justice, Will, even Grandma came and babysat. As much as we love her, this is the real world and she's going to have to be left home alone at some point so we figured it's time to start introducing her to Mommy and Daddy leaving. It was about 10 a.m. and the kids were still asleep so we figured no time like

the present. We took her outside and made sure she went potty, then we got her set up in the kitchen. Her giggle ball, a bone, a stuffy, and her little pink Kong filled with peanut butter were placed in the kitchen strategically to keep her entertained. Baby gates were placed in each door so that when they were closed even if she scratched at the doors it wouldn't damage the wood work (Sugar's scratches from 5 years ago are still there, we didn't need to add more.) It took us about 10 minutes to get everything set up, then we both hugged her and told her good-bye. We left the room and shut the door, picked up our keys making sure they jingled, told Sugar good-bye, opened the front door, closed it, and then went and sat on the couch making no noise. Yeah I know it's pathetic we didn't actually leave her, we just wanted her to think we did. So I set the timer on my phone for 10 minutes, and we waited. She spent a good 4 minutes licking the peanut butter out of her Kong before she realized she was alone. She cried a little, but it wasn't too bad. The 10 minutes were up, so we opened the front door greeted Sugar, and then went to the kitchen for LeeLoo. She was laying in the middle of the kitchen quietly, but she was thrilled to see us. We told her what a good girl she was and we got all kinds of butt wiggles and kisses. We each gave a sigh of relief, that was easier than we thought, maybe she wouldn't be too bad with separation anxiety like Sugar was.

Haha, boy were we wrong. She didn't get sad, she got mad. I noticed that she was keeping a closer eye on me than she normally does but I didn't think to much of it. Well not until I went to make dinner. She had been sleeping in the living-room when I left the room, about three seconds later I heard her crying at the door so I went back and got her and took her outside. She peed, so I took her back to the living-room and she lay right back down, so I headed for the kitchen again. This time it was maybe four seconds before I heard her crying, she usually does that when I leave the room, so I continued prepping dinner. Then I heard Chuckie yelling "NO, NO, NO" and come flying through the kitchen with LeeLoo in his arms heading for the back door, telling me she peed on the floor on his way out. So I went and cleaned it up while she was out there, she hadn't had an accident in the house in weeks but maybe she didn't empty her bladder when I took her out. By time Chuckie brought her back in, dinner was on so I went back in the living room with them for a few minutes. When I left to check on dinner, I was gone for maybe a minute when Chuckie came flying through saying she did it again. Okay this was weird and I started worrying about a bladder infection or something. When he got back, he said she didn't even indicate just walked to the door and peed. I figured I would just keep an eye and if it kept up, we'd take a trip to the vet the next day.

We had dinner and hung out for a while and everything was fine, she was asking to go out like normal. Then I went upstairs to get a bath, again she was sleeping so it was the perfect time for me to head up or so I thought. By time I had gotten my p.j.'s and got in the bathroom I heard her crying, the gate was up so she couldn't get upstairs and Chuckie was with her so I went about my business. When I came down about 15 minutes later (it's hard to enjoy your bath when your puppy is singing the blues,) Chuckie looked at me and said "She's doing it on purpose." I asked what he was talking about and he explained she had her front paws on the first step and was crying, then she looked right at him and peed. The more I thought about it, I realized he was right, she was doing it out of spite. We had left her alone for all of 10 minutes, and every time I left the room she peed on the floor. She was LITERALLY pissed off at me and was peeing on the floor out of spite.

We didn't have any more accidents that night, but she never took her eyes off of me and as

soon as I stood up, she was right beside me. It's been three days, and we haven't attempted to leave her alone again and we haven't had any more accidents. So yeah, she doesn't have separation anxiety like Sugar did, she's just spiteful. I guess before we try it again, I'm going to have to invest in some diapers.