The Hub and I went up to PA to take care of AATH's Canine Client, the beautiful chocolate lab I mentioned earlier. She's a cool dog. This is my first job that is strictly pet sitting, though I do some animal care for other clients....mostly Charly, the dappper little black cat that belongs to Rev. L.

But, lets face it, cats don't allow themselves to become too stressed out, whereas dogs, when seperated from their people, can get highly worked up. In this case, The Canine Client, bored and worried in her oversized crate, found that she could reach the curtains which she proceeded to rip down out of the windows and chew. Luckily, they weren't really damaged, and she didn't eat the rubber stopper thingys......

and it couldn't be considered "my fault" because this was the first day and her owner had left the crate too close to the windows.

I wanted to give her another chance to become friendly with The Hub, who this time took off his big parka like coat before he went in. That seemed to help, and soon she was in "lap lab" mode - you know that situation where a pretty big dog who doesn't actually fit tries to sit in your lap? Winston doesn't try this anymore. He contents himself to sit on people's feet if he likes them - he doesn't want them to leave!

But, what I was worried about was that at first I had to really coax her to eat her food. I know some dogs leave off eating when they're nervous. Heck, I once had a greyhound who was so attached to me that we had to make arrangements for him to stay with my parents where I could see him often when my ex and I broke up. My poor ex took him to the vet several times and there was no other solution but that he be be reunited with me for the sake of his health!!

Luckily, she seems "back on her feed". I'm doing two visits a day, 12 hours apart. My brochure says I visit for half an hour of "play time", etc, but I've had trouble getting out of there in under an hour - the dog is just too daggone cute. She's a great well trained dog - she's had no indoor accidents.

Now my big worry is the snow. I have the owner's permission to bring her to my house in the event of snow....or even if I just thought she was too stressed out from being left by herself for so long. (Hmm. A 7month old puppy in total "play doggie mode" plus Winston sounds like too much stress for ME!) I'm relying on The Hub's jeep to get me up there if we really do get 10" of snow tomorrow, because the roads in Maryland won't be cleared at all. But neither rain, nor snow, nor gloom of night, nor this stupid head cold will stop the determined pet sitter on her appointed rounds!

(pray for me that I don't spin the car out again!)