Zeldie and Mommy (taken by Mommy)
David went to a wedding this weekend in Indianapolis and I was left to take care of Zeldie all by myself. This meant on Friday, I had to get myself up, get the dog up, walk her, feed her, take the garbage out, get ready for work, make my lunch and still get out of the house on time. I was doubtful all this would happen. But, well, wonders will never cease because I did indeed make it to work on time, early in fact. When I got home, I got a very nice note from the dogwalker saying they had a nice walk and Zeldie had been pleasant. I was relieved to hear this because Zeldie had not spent the whole day in the crate since the first week we had her when we had to leave her with Tiffani and go out of town. I was glad though, that Tiffani reminded me of that week otherwise I would probably have been a bit more distracted at work on Friday, if she had not.
Saturday went relatively smoothly, although she cried more than usual when I put her in the crate. When evening came, which is generally her most active time, she was even more riled than usual and I began to think she was showing her first signs of anxiety at David's absence. I was also beginning to realize that either David has taken the role of the alpha dog or I am a big softie because it began to seem like I could not get Zeldie to listen to a single command I gave. I had trouble keeping her off the counters while I was cooking. I had trouble keeping her off the table while I was eating. I had trouble keeping her off the couch while I was watching TV. I spent the entire evening standing in front of the TV trying to distract her from jumping on the couch by throwing her toy and playing tug. It was a long couple of hours.
The next morning, I woke up with a headache. Zeldie was ready to go. This is when I believe what I think was her anxiety kicked into high gear. She was nearly impossible to keep off the couch. She was nearly impossible to keep quiet. After one particularly long barking fit, I heard a pounding on the ceiling, which I am convinced was my neighbor pounding on her floor to signal me to keep the dog quiet. As the pain in my head escalated to a migraine, I felt like a failure. I felt like I had failed at taking care of Zeldie. I felt like I had failed at being a good neighbor. I felt like I had failed at taking care of myself and getting my paper done. I was worn out and it was at least 10 hours until David was going to be home. I didn't think I was going to make it. I did the only thing that seemed logical to me at the moment, I called him and cried.
David told me to take my migraine medication and put the dog in the crate so I could get some rest. I cried harder. David told me to take my migraine medication and put the dog in the crate so that I could get some rest and work on my paper. I cried and cried some more. David told me to take my migraine medication and put the dog in the crate so that I could get some rest, work on my paper and take care of the dog later. She would be fine in the crate, he assured me.
Sure enough, David was right. And now I know that when you have to take care of a little dog all by yourself, you can't be so frivolous with yourself and wait until the migraine kicks in and you are in pain to take your medicine. You have to take care of yourself and take it right away. And I think maybe, that is just a good thing to learn to do whether you have a little dog to take care of or not.
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