Can You Hear This?

As you may have heard, we inherited a big, sweet doggie when my parents recently moved. Darlin’ boy just couldn’t stand the thought of doggie being exposed unnecessarily to the elements. Soooo, he ordered up the biggest puppy palace he could find on the internet and had it shipped to our door. It arrived within a few days.

That was a few weeks ago. When it arrived, Darlin’ boy wrestled it out onto the patio with every intention of putting it together straight-away. Unfortunately, as a result of this and that, it sat, in it’s box, until this past Saturday. Saturday evening he suddenly felt motivated to “construct” doggie’s de-lux accommodations! I did the natural thing………….got a beer, it was really hot,………….. got a seat, in a lounger for optimum comfort,………… and proceeded to watch in fascination!

Since the box had been thoroughly drenched by numerous, heavy thunderstorms during it’s rest period on the patio, it was rather mushy and sort of fell apart once pressure was applied to any particular area. Once the mushy paper had been peeled away, the parts and pieces were identified set aside until needed. It was quickly determined that Darlin’ boy would need one piece of equipment to continue this production……a phillips head screwdriver.

I offered to get one………….nothin’ doin’! He was compelled to disappear into the garage only to return with his ENTIRE power tool case. After getting his power drill with the appropriate phillips head screwdriver attachment, he was ready to tackle the job.

The construction of the palace was fairly quick and painless and I even got up off the lounger to get Darlin’ boy his own beer as well as hold this or that when needed. (I do try to be helpful when I can!) The entire process only took about 30 minutes. By then doggie was quite interested in the activities and avidly watching to see the results. Darlin’ boy finished up, put away his precious power tools, invited doggie to inspect his new digs and sat down to enjoy his beer.

Doggie looked a moment, sniffed a few times and promptly sprawled himself back down on the patio. It was quite apparent he had no interest in getting into the palace. After he rested a spell, Darlin’ boy got up and attempted to coax doggie into the palace. Doggie was completely uninterested!

Not one to give up easily, Darlin’ boy requested I get doggie one of his cookies (a milkbone) as a lure. I complied and he tried cajoling doggie into the palace with the cookie. That failed as well. Refusing to be outdone by the dog, Darlin’ boy proceeds to get down on his all fours and crawl into the palace himself. (A sight to behold that I’m at a loss to describe further!)

Once curled up inside himself, Darlin’ boy begins to talk to the doggie. I suppose he was asking him to “come on in and sit a spell” in some sort of fashion but his pleas fell on deaf doggie ears. Finally, accepting defeat, Darlin’ boy climbed out and admonished doggie about not appreciating his new dwelling. Doggie was quite indifferent to this as well and, again, sprawled himself out on the patio.

To this present moment, I believe that doggie has yet to enter his new palace even though we put a lovely flower box on the front and left the cookie inside. If Darlin’ boy’s feelings are hurt by doggie’s lack of appreciation, he is holding up well. And while the palace does make a charming addition to our picturesqe patio, I’m still parking in the drive and doggie’s still enjoying use of the garage.

That’s fine for now as I know it takes all animals, humans included, time to adjust to new surroundings. But, mark my words, doggie’s garage days are numbered………….