Strange Complaints

I wasn’t sure I would make it and successfully write this column as the back pain I’d complained about last week flared up so much that I basically spent two days in bed not really wanting to move.

The main result of that apparently is that our two dogs, especially the youngest one (Lulu) thought I’d possibly died and now have a wicked case of separation anxiety.

Every night since then she’s managed to wake everyone up every two or three hours by whining and then crying and ultimately barking like her life depended on getting all the barks out.. which makes her older sister (Maggie) do the same because if we're gonna bark then we’re gonna bark!

Which means the wife and I have not been getting that elusive magical thing called sleep…

Ask the barking does get me to let them outside where they maybe tinkle if the mood strikes them, but mostly we’re out there to hunt frogs and about sad.

This happens at 11 pm and then 2 am and usually only ends by me putting them back into the crate and then calmly screaming at them that it's time for sleep and if they wake me up again i will send them to the eternal sleep… which may be a tad harsh on my part but it has worked where they don’t wake us up again.

I know that taking them out is probably rewarding their whining and barking but I’m bit sure what else to do, other than going ahead with the strangulation option…

They don’t get treats to go back in the crate unless you count charming death threats that an exhausted old man says to you in a soft voice as a treat…

I’m just… out of ideas. Thankfully my back is allowing me to get up and down and walk around during the day, but I can't say I’d turn down the sleep I’ve been missing off or were offered to me.

Anyways, take care of your back before it turns into a problem like mine.. and maybe don’t get excessively needy dogs.

Also, please excuse my typos as I’m sleep-and-spelling-deprived.

Until later..