Visions of things to come....

I knew that having a puppy in the house would bring its own set of challenges. I said many times that if I have to clean up baby poop, I may as well clean up puppy poop too. Ahh - the joys of housetraining...

Morning before last, I woke to a lovely sight... to spare you all the gory details, lets sufice it to say that Schooner had left a mess in the downstairs bathroom. See, we have tried crate training her. It failed miserably with Madison, so I suppose I was not expecting success this time around. After three nights of howling, I caved. I knew she was miserable, poor thing, and who can blame her?? I sure as heck would not want to be cooped up in a small portable prison all night either.

Schooner had taken to sleeping in the downstairs bathroom, and I figured that worked just fine. 3 nights she spent in there, peacefully and ALL NIGHT (!!!), until night before last. Clearly, something did not agree with her and I was left to clean up the mess.

So, last night I decided to try her in her crate again. I moved the crate into my office where we have a direct access to OUTSIDE through the doggie doors, and this would save me carrying her up and down the stairs. Plus, I figured there was NO WAY she'd poop where she sleeps - especially in such a small area.

I was wrong.

Way wrong.

Luckily the line from the office to outside was short, and I got her out as quickly as I could. Mind you, this was 2:40 am. It was dark, but by the looks of the crate I presumed she was a mess, too. I could not just LEAVE her like that... I had to do something to clean her up...

Now, I know this is gross, but honestly, you'd probably do the same. When faced with a choice of picking up said pooch full of said poop, and bringing her into the house for a bath, or just ploping her into the pool, I think you'd choose my way of thinking, too... Into the pool she went for a spontaneous bath. At 3:00am. (Heck, the water in the pool is a balming 96 and the air temp wasn't any lower...)

I figured it was just a precursor to those mid-night diaper blowouts that require not only a change in sleeping atire, but new sheets and a full-on bath. But I promise, I won't bathe Christopher in the pool - at least, not much!!