Today my side of the fence is furry

Ok, so everyday on my side of the fence is furry, I have seven (yes, 7, I didn't misspell several) dogs here right now.  Four of these are ours, the other three are fosters.  One middle aged Harrier and two 9 week old Lab mix puppies. They all shed, some more than others, did I mention that all the dogs are either black, or have black on them? This makes all the fur both easy to spot when you are spot cleaning because someone is knocking on your door, and hard to ignore the clumps you missed.  The lab mix puppies could be mixed with Newfie...at 9 weeks these boys are quite the chunks, 12-14 lbs.  Puppies that big pee a LOT.  They also poop a LOT.   We are going thru newspapers at a rate that would make tree huggers weep. I hound all my friends for newspapers, and I hound them to hound their friends for newspapers. I buy white vinegar by the gallon, which makes the house smell slightly pickled, but that beats pet smell (I think).  I also sweep, vacuum (in that order if I don't want my vacuum to explode) and mop more than I ever thought possible.  Boy Wonder has become quite the expert mopper, but his sweeping/vacuuming skills leave a lot to be desired.  He fails to realize that dog fur chooses to hang out in the corners and along the walls, not in the 4 square feet in the middle of the floor.

 I am very grateful for his help, but fact that I have to either spend twenty minutes redoing what he just spent 9.2 seconds doing (while complaining that it is going to take forever to do whatever I have asked) OR  forty five minutes dealing with the meltdown of my borderline spectrum son because my way is too hard and doesn't 'make sense' and is unreasonable for a wee lad of 10.9 is difficult for me to swallow.  I don't want to have to make that choice every.single.time. I ask him to do something.  Why do wee lads of 10.9 have to be told every.single.morning. that the dogs will want to eat when they get up?  Why do they not realize that it takes 4.2 minutes to feed them but it takes 23.7 minutes to argue about why they shouldn't have to?  Plus mommy stays sketchy for about 47 minutes after that little discussion, upping the ante considerably.

Middle Child Syndrome was given sole custody of the puppies at night and her only other real job with them is chief cuddler. Thankfully they do sleep all night, since school is starting on Thursday and she needs her beauty sleep. As long as I bolt from my bed early enough to get them to their papers, they stay dry.  The very second their feet hit the papers they turn into furry fountains. Then they want to splash in the puddles.  So I stand there, watching them pee and as soon as the flow stops I try to slide fresh paper under them.  Before.I.have.coffee. Then Boy Wonder and I release the rest of the hounds.  After that comes feeding time at the zoo.  They all act like there last meal was last Wednesday and for most of them the food is gone before the bowl fully hits the floor.  All in all it takes about 30 minutes of constant activity before i can grab coffee, either actually make or simply point out breakfast for Boy Wonder and pop open my laptop.

This morning I left my glasses on my nightstand, so my screen is all trapezoidal,  I am simply too tired to go get them.  It creates a kind of happy bubble to not wear them once in a while,  I can see the screen just fine, but not the dust on the TV, and I can't track the constant forward movement of the fur army.  I have to get ready for work, and while I have managed to squeeze in some cleaning around the rest of the morning, I always run out of time.  Please don't point out that if I hadn't sat here blogging I could have folded another load of laundry...I type pretty slow and I probably could have folded two loads!

Let's all take a few minutes today to dance for rain in Texas and chant for sun along the East Coast.  Treat each other like it is your last encounter and do at least one nice thing for yourself.

Peace