housesitting
This weekend, I am housesitting for my friends who have gone to the wilds of northern california for a kids' soccer tournament. I am the designated housesitter/dogwatcher anytime they go away, because this is the closest I get to a vacation -- 20 minutes from my own place. My friends have a real house, a big one with a yard, and the dogs that go with it. More importantly to me, they have a huge TV, digital cable (I only have the regular kind) and a plethora of DVDs, so I get an opportunity to catch up on my movie-watching. For instance, today I will watch Spider-Man, since the sequel is coming out next week. I'm a little slow.
My friends have two dogs, whereas I have three cats. That's a big difference. I'm not one of those cat people who thinks dogs suck -- I like dogs just fine and grew up with one (although a toy poodle barely counts as a dog...) but I've had my cats for a long time and I love them dearly. They're just fine, when I leave them alone while I stay here...I check on them in the morning and fill up their food and water/clean the litter box, and this morning, for instance, they looked at me like "oh, you went somewhere? neat." Apparently, they only act like furry balls of co-dependency when I'm actually
there.
The dogs here, they're good dogs, except they're furry balls of co-dependency
all the time. God forbid you get up to go to the bathroom -- they follow you everywhere, with their big ol' dog eyes, holding on to their stuffed things or chewy bones, looking at you like "I'm cute! Don't leave!" Jeez, I'm just going to the freaking bathroom! When you do leave for some time, then come back, it's like you went off to war. I go for coffee, and I come back to two big trembling messes of dogs. I couldn't do this everyday -- way too stressful! I'll stick to my cats -- when I leave them alone, the worst they do is ignore me for a few minutes when I get back, and they're quiet about it. Once the dogs settle down, they're quiet for long periods of time and that's cool. I'd rather them be these happy, friendly, overly-dependent dogs ... they could be mean, nasty dogs with no redeeming qualities. I just wish I knew how to interpret the different variations of whining. I mean, they have food, water, an open door to the outside, toys and bones galore -- what more could they possibly want?
