It's A Doggy-Dog Xmas

We arrived in Wisconsin and we stuck to the same plan as last year, Madison stays with Andy and his mom while Izzy stays with me at my parent’s house. This worked great last year because it seemed they behaved better while they are apart. Since Madison was holed up in Laura’s house all week with no friends she didn’t have a partner in crime to help her get in trouble. Therefore, all week I heard how great Madison behaved. I guess she just lay around the house and also would go from window-to-door and then back to window protecting the house with a few barks here and there. Other than that Madison was on vacation too as she spent every day being lazy and playing in the snow. Unlike Madison, Izzy was not a fan of playing outside in the snow. She preferred to stay inside in the warm house.

I on the other hand was in charge of Izzy who is very much a puppy still. She was bouncing off the walls hyper from morning ‘til night as she played with my parent’s shit-zuh, Shadow. Here is a 55 pound spastic dog playing with a barely 10 pound fluff ball every day and all day. It was pretty comical.

With that said, I knew I had to keep a close eye on Izzy during the two Xmas parties my parent’s had at their house. The first party had over 40 people there and that meant a very excited Izzy. She was so excited to see all the people (especially the kids) that she could hardly contain herself. There were a couple kids there that were afraid of dogs so Andy and I really had to watch her and entertain her so she wouldn’t plow over the little kids with excitement. She did really good with all the people, but I knew we still had to watch her so she didn’t get into the food that was out all over the place. Izzy disappeared downstairs and Andy followed to ensure she didn’t tackle the table of desserts. Instead of finding Izzy face first in the dessert table he found Shadow going to town on the cake that was out. Shadow was standing on the stairs with his head sticking through the railing and on the other side of the railing was the table of treats. This gave him easy access to the cake and his little mouth was going full speed ahead. Andy yelled “Shadow” as I laughed hard. Andy scared Shadow that caused him to pee on the carpet. I thought this was funny because we were so concerned with Izzy getting into the food that nobody thought tiny little Shadow would be the one to eat the cake from the dessert table.

I was so proud of Izzy for behaving herself at the family Xmas party that I started to trust her a little more to roam around the house without keeping a close eye on her. The next day my mom was out doing errands, my dad was out shoveling and I decided to trust Izzy by herself while I blow dried my hair. Big mistake!!! Ten minutes in I got this feeling to check on her. I found her on the stairs playing with a small red ball. I picked it up and I noticed it was from one of my mom’s decorations and it left bright red all over my hand just from picking it up. I took it upstairs to see if I could find where it came from. No luck, but on my way back down stairs I noticed this red ball left a few red streaks on the ivory carpet. I was a little freaked and I went to find the Bissel to steam clean this up. Once the light was turned on I noticed the bright red streaks up and down the stairs. Looks like Izzy had a great time playing with this red ball that she slobbered over and so the ball bled all over the carpet. I was now more concerned, but my dad was pretty calm about it and he started to clean. I then noticed more streaks at the bottom of the stairs and then that lead me to a bigger area of the carpet with more streaks and more bright red coloring. This large area led me to the home of the red ball. My mom had a basket of potpourri and in the potpourri were red balls that smelled like cinnamon. I am sure Izzy thought the cinnamon balls were candy. Unfortunately her good time was noticed all over the carpet. After a couple pass over’s with the Bissel it was all clean. Thank god!

Christmas Eve was the second family party we had and I was more confident that Izzy would behave herself after the last family get together; however, after the red ball incident I knew I still had to keep an eye on her. Of course I had to go through the same hyper activity as everyone arrived one-by-one. Once Izzy calmed down she was pretty good the rest of the night. Everyone was in the basement opening presents and I noticed Izzy haul her butt upstairs where nobody was, but food was still out and in easy access for her. I decided it was best if I follow her to make sure the food would be safe. As I get to the top of the stairs I noticed Shadow on top of the table face first in the red velvet cake. There was a birthday that day so my grandmother brought over a cake. There were seven pieces left that my mom put on a plate to eat for later. Well, of the seven pieces five of the pieces were completely cleaned of frosting and three of the pieces had huge chunks taken out of them. I yelled at Shadow and he just started going full speed at that cake. I grabbed him and put him on the ground. There was Izzy staring at me with the look of “When is it my turn?” I noticed Shadow got on the kitchen chair that was pulled out and then hopped onto the table. According to my mom Shadow had never done this before. Well, again, after Shadow pulled the cake stunt I wasn’t as worried with Izzy. It was just funny how I was so worried about Izzy misbehaving and getting into the food when all along it was Shadow we all had to worry about. Not long after the cake incident my aunt was packing up her stuff to leave. She put one of her kids large chocolate bars in her purse and then set the purse on the floor. Shadow proceeded to go in the purse and take out the chocolate bar. It’s a good thing he only got one bite because chocolate is so bad for dogs. After this night everyone was exhausted from the dogs.

On Christmas Andy and I took the dogs up to his family Xmas in Wautoma and I was very happy with both dogs behaving themselves. Izzy was just so excited with all the children and the other dog there. Things were going smoothly and then Madison decided to get on the counter and take a bun. She got almost the whole thing. Once she realized what was up there and how to get at the food she had a one track mind. She was constantly trying to get food off the counter. This made for a very exhausting night of guarding the food so neither dog would get at it and get sick.

It’s the morning that we are leaving town and it’s all quiet in the house. I warned my parents that it won’t last long because Andy and Madison were on their way over to get us. Of course as soon as they got there Izzy got so hyper that she tipped over one of my mom’s plants. The moist dirt was all over the white carpeting. Again, the Bissel gets dragged out of the closet to clean up another one of Izzy’s messes. I swear that Bissel got the most use ever during the week that Izzy and I were there.

The girls had a great Xmas in Wisconsin, but they were also very excited to get in the car and make the long journey back to warm Arizona. I am sure my parents are happy to have their house back to peace and quiet.