Usually, vacations whiz by and the next thing you know you are back at work trying to recover from your vacation. This vacation was long and not in an enjoyable way. I knew traveling with the dog was going to be trying--it was a seven hour drive, after all. But that turned out to be the easy part. Our wonderfully easy-going dog--the dog who loves every person and every dog and every cat--hated my mother's dog. Well, only when she was standing up, wavering on her dysplastic hips. Still the growling and snarling and snapping really gave us the full flavor of the hatred. Also, not a fan of my dad. Again, when he was standing up on his wonky hips. (I don't think his are dysplastic.) But after the emergency phone call to the animal behaviorist, I calmed down a lot. Turns out, Stella just saw her opportunity to become top dog and wanted to cull the pack a little. The only thing we could do in the short term was keep them separated. Although it wasn't easy, it made things much simpler.Stella also kept waking up at 3:30 am--stress and sleeplessness cocktail, charming. Since I was in a house full of people, I had to take her outside. I could have slept all day and not made up for the awakening. Finally, two days before the vacation ended, we decided to let her sleep in her bed rather than in the crate. She slept until 5:30 the first day and 6:00 the next. I never thought being rudely awoken at six am would seem like such a relief! (We decided we were on to something, and Stella is sleeping in our room on her own bed. Today, 6:30--and I woke her up!)
After the day of rain (and I do mean 24 hours) the weather turned autumnal, so there were no more beach days, though we did take Miss Stella for a walk on the beach, leashed. And perhaps if I were a smarter one, we would have taken a few leashed walks on the beach before we went off leash. Next time I bet we'll all enjoy ourselves more.
And for a review of the month in stitching
- finish Anna's stocking--nearly, just need a few strands to finish the personalization
- finish Brett's stocking--YES!
- finally sew AB stash and dash bags--um, no
- stitch Hinzeit Sisters for sissy--yes, this is what I did on my summer vacation (see below)
- make a dozen bookmarks for the dude--didn't get any made, but I did find some good patterns and ideas
- finish finish one project for me--nope
Hinzeit "Sisters"
Stitched with Caron Waterlilies "Cherry" (101) on unknown fabric
Mill Hill "Martini"
For this month, I plan to:
- finish mom's mermaid
- finish Granny's martini
- sew a purse for my aunt
- sew those AB stash and dash bags
- sew two messenger bags
- stitch a small piece for each of my Harry Potter crazed nephews (2)
15 comments:
Sorry about the dog. Maybe I'm glad that cats can only barely be trained, but barely have to either.
When I ordered Debbie Mumm's Mill Hill Kitchen Collection (Toasty and Bowled Over) I had completely forgotten that I had ordered Martini also. Found it while looking for the next two Kitchen kits (Jammin' and Easy as Pie). Looks like a fun stitch.
Nice stitching - sorry the vacation didn't turn out exactly as planned. :)
It sounds like you had a tough vacation, but learned a lot about your dog. We had a similar experience with our Grace Kelly. Husband was away on business and my crate trained dog suddenly woke me up every night at 1, 2, 3 or some or all variations thereof. In desperation I let her sleep on her dog bed so she wouldn't dig in the crate and I could catch some shut eye. Problem solved! Go figure. Your stitching looks great!
Welcome back - I hope your holiday, however doggie stressful, brought some relaxtion and a change to your regular routine.
Lovely stitching - good luck with your stitching plans.
I hope you catch up on your rest! Congratulations for surviving your vacation!!
Great pic of you and the pooch on the beach! I had a similar vacation with my Sophie dog when we visited my brother - it is NOT fun! Now we send both doggies to the exclusive doggie hotel (they even play classical music at night and show animal planet during they day - yeah, I don't think the dogs are watching it, either). It's costly but worth it and they actually have a good time.
Great WIPs progress!
Hmmm - not much sleep was had on your vacation. Bet you and pup are glad to be back home.
Nice stitching - love that martini glass.
Welcome back!
It's always a learning experience when you do something for the first time like taking the dog on vacation. I've always had a dog but never taken one anywhere but Grandma's house.
Congratulations on getting lots of stitching done. I love the vacation pic.
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Bummer, I hate when the potential of vacations is ruined by silly circumstances. Like irritable dogs.
Sorry to hear that it didn't go so well. We had a vacation like that, only it was the in-laws hating our 3 month old tiny puppy. Since then we don't visit the in-laws and The Fluffinator goes to a very loving kennel when we go elsewhere!
Love the stitching progress.
Great picture! Even though your vacation wasn't as restful as possible, you did learn some important things about Stella. Hope you have some restful days ahead of you.
Seems to me that you accomplished a lot this month.
Dear Stella,
Nice work on convincing the 'rents that dog crates and dog beds are definitely not suitable for pups of our persuasions. With a little more work, you can easily end up in the big bed, under the covers, and head on pillow. After a year or so, they'll give up and sleep in the guest room and let you have the master all to yourself.
Trust me.
With love from your pal,
Stewey
Oh, your Stella and our Lily are definitely cut from the same cloth! Lily was never a crate-sleeper....but give her a dog bed (or even a pile of dirty laundry *a-HEM, Husband!!*) in the bedroom with us, and she'll sleep at least as long as we do. Oh, and family visits are interesting...she loves my parents, but hates my sister's dog Jake with a fiery passion. As in, growling, bristly, teeth-baring beast at the end of a frighteningly flimsy string HATE. Makes Christmas interesting....one dog upstairs, the other downstairs, all. the. time.
Ah well. We love her anyway. :)
Sorry the dog didn't cooperate on vacation, but hey... a dog's gotta do what a dog's gotta do to be alpha. lol
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