I remember
vividly the day I realized there were pocket
doors hidden in the walls of the kitchen. It was early
2003 and I looked at Jess and said:
"HOLY SHIT!
WE CAN HAVE A DOG NOW!".
Because we'd be able to put a doggie door in the
backdoor leading to the kitchen and lock the pocket
doors at night so they don't go apeshit all over the
place... yet still have the ability to go outside
whenever they wanted. Kinda the perfect life for a
pup...
...until a baby
comes into the picture.
I was laying in
bed thinking of the plethora of changes I'm in the
midst of with the house when I realized that part
of waking up in the middle of the night, may mean
going to the kitchen to prepare a bottle or a plethora
of things. And the dogs are conditioned to the opening
of a kitchen door meaning: "WOO HOO!!!
NOW WE GET TO RUN AROUND THE HOUSE WITH YOU!"
Add in a baby and we've got some annoying scenarios
playing out. The bottom line is, in the middle of the
night? We need access to the kitchen without dogs to
keep the peace. During the day "the kitchen" doesn't
mean what it does when they're relegated to it at
night, so it won't be as much of an issue... but we
needed to change this. So I decided to put a doggie
door through the wall in the dining room and outside?
Actually ATTACH a new room to the house. Tiled and
with a shingled roof. I guess you could call this
a doghouse, but I prefer to call it an extension.
:) I feel I've added 30 square feet to our house. ;-)
Getting them to use it however, is an entirely
different story...
Awww. So sweet.
They really do love the thing, I wasn't making that
up. In fact to LeeLoo? It's the center of her day. She
runs through the doggiedoor and doghouse for fun. Good
segue for this pic...
That's her
lookin' at the camera IN the doggie
door...
It took about 4
nights, but now it's all routine. We watch TV for
a bit in bed while the dogs sleep in it... then
I stand up and they race THROUGH the kitchen
TO the doggie door to go to their bed.
CeBe still doesn't love it, but she'd prefer to
be INSIDE OF ME 24 hours a day, so what can
you do. :-)
And yes, I have no
problem fitting in it if need be. ;-) Weird, check out
that long hair on my left shin in that picture? What
the shit is that? That made me actually check my shin
right now. Ha. Blame it on Talya. ;-)
So things are
coming right along. It feels like it will never end,
but as is the case with most of these projects I'll
wake up one day, look around and realize I'm no longer
needed. It's a weird feeling...
Whew. That gets me
every time. 885 entries later. Whew x2.
