Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Cocker Spaniels for Sale

For Sale: two adorable, loving 6 1/2 year old cocker spaniels. Charlie is black and white with a puppy face and energy to spare given that he thinks he's a Jack Russell. Sammy is white and brown with tan spots, laid back and full of kisses. If you respond now, I will also throw in a mouse, no extra charge.

Okay, my little darlings are not really for sale, but boy are they in serious trouble. Lately, I have been coming home to find chewed up scraps of mail on the floor. They have realized they can pull things I leave too close to the edge of the table or island off the table or island. I do realize some of the blame lies with me for leaving the mail in a tempting location. Last night, I watched as Sammy realized he can also reach the top of the dresser. He didn't seem to find anything of interest though.

Today I came home to a huge mess all over the kitchen. My guess is one of them smelled something appealing in the garbage and tried to get it out. In the process, the garbage can was knocked over. And by the time the fun was over, the garbage was all over the kitchen. My first thought was, well, let's just say it would have made a trucker sound like a saint. My second thought was "please don't let there have been anything harmful in there." I try to be very careful about what I put in the trash just in case something like this should ever happen. These little guys are my babies. They are the reason I get out of bed in the morning, mainly because Charlie will stand on my chest and lick my eyes until I wake up.

So I yelled "bad dogs" several times and put them outside. As I was cleaning up the mess, I saw movement and looked over in time to see the back end of a mouse scurrying under the stove. Sighing deeply, I looked at the clock. Seeing that it was only about 4:45, I set down the Swiffer and called Alpha Ecological.

I explained to the receptionist that I had them come out a couple of months ago because I was having a mouse problem and there is a mouse running around my kitchen. She pulled up my account and said that I had signed up for the quarterly maintenance plan and they were scheduled to come out to check my traps on June 10th. Would I like an earlier appointment? "Nope. I was really hoping I would have a mouse running around my house for the next three weeks and I was just calling to share the good news" is what I wanted to say. What I actually said was "yes, please," but I was still sarcastic about it.

She passed me on to scheduling; they will be here tomorrow between 8:30 - 11:30. I suspect it will be later than sooner as the tech called to see if he could come out in the afternoon instead and was clearly not happy when I told him no. I already had to call my boss and inform him that I will be working from home in the morning and I have plans tomorrow evening that I am not about to change. I paid for 8 traps that are supposed to have 90 days of mouse bait each; today is day 69, so I really don't care if having to come here to bait my traps is inconvenient for the person getting paid to do so. It wasn't exactly part of my game plan either.

As for my babies, they seem to be okay. Actually, they are rather pleased with themselves. I'll keep a close eye on them tonight and when I do finally leave for the office tomorrow, I'm putting the garbage can in the garage.

4 comments:

Sari said...

LOL! What naughty dogs. Mine do the same thing. Actually my cats are worse than the dogs at knocking over the trash. Speaking of cats, want one? Take care of your mouse problem for you.

Steph said...

We had mouse issues for a few years. They just coming back. I always have a trap set up in my pantry and we would get one like every nine months or so. That is, until our new neighbors moved in almost two years ago and brought along their two cats. Now no mice!!!

Heather said...

If Sammy wasn't allergic to cats, I probably would have gotten one right after James died in an act of rebellion.

Sue D said...

Dogs, you can't live with them,you can't live without them. Oh wait, that's men LOL. Our dog was also in trouble this week. In fact, my husband had threatened to put her in the freebie section of craigslist, but truth be told it was his fault anyway. He had left a cupcake on the coffee table and then couldn't understand why it wasn't there when he came home from work the next day!