Three Dog Night

No matter how I look at it, I have too many dogs. I want to pretend I don't have too many, but the fact is that the four-footed critters currently outnumber the two-footed in this house, and it is this two-footed critter who is responsible for most of the care of the four-footed ones.

After much consideration, I have come to the conclusion that when it comes to dogs, two is the magic number. One gets lonely and bored (read PIP here. One gets too attached to his owner (read PIP again). One needs much attention to keep him happy (yep, PIP once more). At the other end of the spectrum, three dogs constitute a true pack. There must be squabbles to determine pack hierarchy. There must be discussions about who is getting the most treats. There must be marking of territory. And just for the record, Gus, my bed is NOT your territory.

Another problem discovered at about 2:00 am is that while two dogs will sleep peacefully throughout the night, when there are three, two of them decide to go outside and bark. Now if it were up to me, I could totally ignore the barking. However, I live in town now. I have neighbors who live closer than a mile away. They might not want to ignore the 2:00 am barking. Never mind that their little Chihuahuas bark all day long. In town, day time barking is okay.

The final straw, however, was my attempt at adding exercise to my weight loss program. Three dogs are DEFINITELY too many to try to walk at one time. They get tangled. One goes one way and two go the other. They wrap their leashes around my legs. I don't know how much exercise I got as I stumbled around trying to make it home in one piece.

So it is time for me to stop procrastinating and get serious about finding a home in the country for my extra dog. I don't want to do it. I am still hurting from the loss of my kitty cats without even having a chance to tell them good-bye. I want to find a place that is just perfect and where I can check up on Sam's well being.