Oh, for a Privacy Fence!

It's almost the weekend. At least, this is what I keep telling myself. Today, I had to crate the puppies. I've been an irresponsible pet-owner and allowed them to run free in the kitchen/family room area, restricted by a gate. Today, I put them in a crate and kept them there until I could come home for lunch and for good, in the evening.

I felt horrible. All morning, I kept imagining scenario's in which the cage collapsed, in which they killed each other, in which they tried to fight their way out until their paws were bloody.

When I came home from work at lunch, panicked at what I'd find...they appeared to be fine. While slightly stiff and rather sleepy, my puppies didn't seem to mind that I'd shut them up in a crate, that they couldn't run around as they were accustomed to doing.

Even so, I still feel like a bad mother/pet owner.

I'm blogging about the puppies again, a fact for which I apologize. I think it's because that's what my life is all about at the moment. They need constant attention. We're still working on the housebreaking thing which is made far more difficult when the neighbour lets out his army of yappers every time one of them gets ready to do her business.

I keep complaining about the neighbour. I think it's because he annoys the crap out of me. It's always him who goes out to the dogs, never his wife. And he doesn't go out and shout at them. He goes out and tries to, seriously, talk sweetly to them. Unfortunately, they're so noisy, they can't hear him.

The, inevitably, he scoops the noisiest dog up and holds her over the fence. He wants the puppies to get to know her, you see. Well, my puppies have sniffed her but she growled at them and scared them. Now, they just want to go off and play.

It used to be me in the puppies' position. When I'd go out pre-puppies, it was ME that got barked at, ME who had to go pet the blasted dog so the dog whisperer would go inside.

Still, I have someone coming to do an estimate on the fence today. We'll see how it goes. It's going to be worth it just to be able to go out without getting barked at quite so much.

In the meantime, we're playing rounds of, "Are the yappers out there? They're n0t, let's go!"

At least the puppies keep life from being boring!