Back on the Farm

I had made the reservation for Sabrina to go to Canine Country Club, but I had the wrong date. So, when I called back to get her in starting Saturday, they told me they were booked, she couldn’t come until Monday. That is a problem. So, I talk to my neighbor Gene who sweetly agrees to take Sabrina to CCC Monday morning. Great, problem solved.

So, I left Sunday morning at the crack of dawn and left Sabrina in the backyard/utility room.

3:00am this morning (5am in Dallas) my phone rings. I click it to make it stop ringing. It rings again. I answer. It is my neighbor Dave. He has called to tell me that Sabrina is barking and has been barking for sometime. Uh oh.

I tell him the bad news is that I can’t do anything about it because I’m in California (hint hint it is two hours earlier), but the good news is that she is going to be boarded for two weeks, and it won’t be a problem. I will make sure that it doesn’t happen any more when I return to town.

Tragically, the conversation didn’t end there. He was very busy broadcasting, but completely unable to receive. He tells me that she barks all the time that early and that it was right by their bedroom window etc. He told me it had been especially bad this week . . . she had been boarded the week before, so I would have loved to ask him how that week had been to see his response. At any rate, he went on and on and on. It was frustrating for him because she was barking and frustrating for me because there was nothing I could do about it.

I have no doubt she was barking, and probably the morning before too since I left so early, however, she sleeps on my bed and I think I would notice 60lbs of dog leaping off the bed in the night, and she wakes up with me in the morning. I told him that I wish he had let me know sooner because I would have done something about it sooner.

In addition, I’m not sure of what time he deems acceptable for Sabrina to be barking. I’m not thinking they are early birds, and I do leave for school at about 7:00 or so during the school year. So, we may have a problem no matter what.

He calls back a little later. I’m not sure of why he called the second time, except she was still barking. He asks me at one point if I can hear her, but I couldn’t, so I’m sure that was disappointing for him. I told him (again) I couldn’t do anything about it since I wasn’t actually there. He wanted to know if my other neighbor Emily had a key, I said yes (although I wasn’t thinking she would want a 5am wake-up call). I told him again I was California and she was going to be boarded and I would solve the problem when I got back.

Then he went on this whole tangent about how he didn’t realize the problem could be solved. Really????? Then leave me alone and suck it up. He told me that they realized they had to put up with her barking during the day. (I told him I appreciated that since his dogs also barked during the day.) He told me that is why his dogs are always inside. Hmmm, how many of you have been to my house and commented on those obnoxious little dogs and their barking?????

He also said that he was so sleepy the first time he called that he couldn’t remember what I had said. Tell me about it. He probably achieved what he was really after, he woke me up and I didn’t get any more sleep either.

At any rate, I called Emily (later) and she said she had already seen Dave and listened to him rant, but that Sabrina had not disturbed her sleep.

In Sabrina’s defense, I don’t believe that she barks that much. I think she was bad Sunday morning and Monday morning. Note to self, leaving her alone for 24 hours not a good plan.

So, that should be an interesting issue to deal with when I get back. I do feel badly about the barking the last two mornings, but nothing I can do about it yet, and it is really hard to feel too bad since more than once I haven't been able to go to sleep because of his yappy little dogs.