2.13.2016

February 13, 2016

White Dog is my elegant, sophisticated leader of the White Dog Army...the one with hundreds of dollars worth of schooling and normally impeccable manners. Here she was standing on the couch braying like a donkey to hurry Steve's dinner preparations.

Spring fever hit the entire WDA this afternoon when it was nearly too warm in the house. Yo, Zso, Benson and Opal spent a good portion of midday lounging on the deck half in sun half in shade enjoying one of those perfect Spring days.

The nicer the day got, the more restless the pack became and by the time Steve got home from school every White Dog had something to say and a demand to make. It was a perfect storm of one feeding off of another's energy until we were a household of rebels without a cause.

I realized we simply did not have enough time out spots in our house for all of them.

Steve tried reasoning with them to calm down (that worked as well on them as it does on me). When they refused to have manners he stopped making dinner and came into the living room. He sat down. The WDA barked their demand for their meal...and he ignored them. It took a couple of minutes of milling and grousing but every pup finally figured out they needed to get a grip. All waited nicely...until he stood and walked back into the kitchen...then the cacophony began again.

I know yelling just reinforces their action but by now I had a serious pounding headache. ENOUGH! I yelled in my meanest momma voice. It was like I flipped a switch; suddenly nobody wanted to make a sound. I immediately felt bad for my poor handling of the situation but frankly was glad all were now, finally, eating their dinner...

...except WD. She glared at me. "You know better," I said in a more civil tone. "and you were asked to stop." In pure defiance she sniffed her dinner then jumped down and went into the office...skipping dinner to prove a point.

2 comments:

Gus said...

Rich keeps trying to tell me that when I yell back at them, I am just making them more excited because then I am barking too. Phisbah! Some days I really need the seven seconds of silence that a shout can buy me. Sometimes I even do it again, just to prove I am in charge. ;)

Random Felines said...

We would never skip dinner just to prove a point. :)