Nellie
It’s partly my fault again that the barks went silent. I’ve had some problems that cause our mom a lot of work.
My pee trap has leaked ever since I came to Asherpark. It’s a lot better now because I take a pill every day, but I still drip. I’m like a leaky old faucet that won’t shut off all the way.
Sometimes when I fall into a deep sleep my faucet opens and I wake up in a puddle of pee. I’m so embarrassed when that happens.
Mom says it’s no big deal. She grabs the spray bottle of Nature’s Miracle and pretty soon everything smells good again. It’s the same stuff she sprays each morning after Jack has done his stealth marking all around the house.
Mom has a good nose. Oh, it’s not anywhere near as good as a dog’s nose, but for a human it’s right up there. She says she can smell the sweet musky odor of our dog pee even after it’s dried.
Last week mom decided everything had to be cleaned. She vacuumed all the rugs and the floors. Next she steam cleaned all the area rugs. Finally she mopped all the floors twice, first with the miracle stuff and then with good old soap and water.
It was torture for us mutts. We hate the vacuum, so we stayed as far away as we could. We don’t like the carpet machine any better, and we don’t like the smell of the soap. Worst of all, we can’t be in the house when she’s mopping because we keep keep walking on the wet parts.
It took mom almost a week to clean everything. After it was all done mom lay down on the couch. She was pooped. Suddenly she sat up and said real loud, “Oh, No!”
We quick looked at her to see what was wrong. She was pointing at Jack and giving him the stink eye. Turns out after everything else was cleaned up mom realized Jack has been pissing on the couch. She got out her black light and showed us all the places where Jack marked.
Poor Jack. He knew he was in trouble but I’m not sure he knew what he did wrong. Since he’s deaf there’s no point in talking to him. Mom shook her finger at him and pointed at the worst spots on the couch. He looked real guilty and slunk out of the room.
Pretty soon mom was on her hands and knees with the upholstery cleaner. It took hours because the couch is huge and Jack marked everywhere. We took ourselves outside so we didn’t have to hear the cleaning machine.
Now the house doesn’t smell so good to us mutts. It smells of soap. Mom’s happy but plenty tired. I’m worried because I know I’m gonna have an accident any day.
After she rested up, mom called us all together. We sat in a circle in front of her and she slipped some homemade treats in our mouths.
Mom looked at each one of us and talked to us real slow. She said she loved us no matter what we did. Sometimes she wished we didn’t make so much work for her, but that was part of the deal.
Mom said us four mutts bring her more joy than she could ever express and she wouldn’t trade us for all the money in the world.
Jack looked right at mom and grinned. Ash grabbed a stuffie and shoved it at Tess. I stumbled closer to mom and collapsed at her feet, a little dribble of pee escaping when I hit the floor.
Life is good! I am very grateful.