Puppy Love?

by Laurie Wells — August 20, 2007

A few weeks ago, my little sis made a surprise visit from Portland with her fiancée and 7-month-old puppy in tow. I hadn’t seen her since the holidays, so it was great to catch up and meet her new bundle of fuzzy energy. However, I was a bit surprised to learn that her visit was actually a stop on the way to her fiancée’s family reunion in Wisconsin and she needed a dog sitter for a few weeks. As a full-time working mom of an incredibly active toddler and wife of a ridiculously active husband, my life is pretty full these days, so the idea of adding a rug-chewing, hole-digging, toddler-pouncing Golden Retriever to the mix seemed like a bad idea. Don’t get me wrong, my husband and I are known among our friends as avid dog lovers who will take care of anyone’s pup - we haven’t had the heart to get another dog after we lost our beloved St. Bernard a few years ago and dog sitting fills the need for some dog time - but dog sitting and puppy sitting are very different.

Our strategy when dog sitting has always been that a worn-out dog is a well-behaved dog. So whenever we have the pleasure of dog sitting, that lucky pup gets to join us on hikes and runs and swims and long walks first thing in the morning. That usually ensures a day of peaceful working and an evening of relaxed hanging out. So, as soon as Maddie joined our family, I got up for my usual early-morning workout and brought her along. The problem was that after an hour walk through the open space near my house, she was just getting warmed up. She bounded back home and had plenty of energy for chewing up my son’s toys and our furniture. I felt like I had met my match.

Never one to easily admit defeat, I decided to ramp up the exercise until she was so worn out that I could work without worrying that she was tearing up the backyard or chasing her around to recapture whatever contraband was locked in her jaws. As my husband warned her after our first morning’s walk "You have now brought the wrath of Laurie upon you. You will soon be very tired."

On day two, we started the morning with a long early-morning stroll. After the walk, as she danced around the kitchen with one of my shoes, she seemed very confident that she had won. Little did she know that was just the beginning. I let her use up some of her energy running around the backyard showing off while I worked, then surprised her with a very steep hike in the mid-day heat. Sure, I was soaked in sweat and breathing hard, but I was pushed on by the joy of seeing her stopping to rest now and then and even laying down when someone stopped along the way to give her a pat. Although she rested for a bit that afternoon, as the day cooled, she seemed to be regaining energy, and once my son joined the act, she was bounding around the backyard as if we hadn’t been out yet that day. But I was not done! I loaded my son into the pack and we headed out again, this time to a pond near my house. An hour or so of walking and swimming, with a little tennis ball retrieval mixed in to ensure she was constantly running, and she was barely able to keep up on the way home. She had enough energy to gobble her dinner, then lay down and stayed that way until I led her upstairs to bed.

With a grin of success, I slept like a rock until my son woke up me up and we started the routine all over again. In fact, I’m happily working to the sound of her puppy snores as she sleeps at my feet...