OMG, what have we done?

Well I wrote that title at 6.00am this morning and was in a state of despair. You know when you are so tired and worn out all you can physically do is sit and cry, well that was me 6.00am this morning.

To rewind and explain why this is the last few days and a brief idea of why it happened.

Little Man has developed a huge phobia of dogs, to the extent where he is physically shaking and standing on a table even if it is a picnic bench with someone elses lunch on it or climbing a tree to get away from the dog that is about 1 mile away.  It has got to the stage where he doesn't want to go out on bikes or long walks incase we see one,and to be fair we didn;t really know how to tackle it (as I blogged about here). The doctors have said the only way to get over it is to expose him to a dog so he has no choice but to get use to them and realise that they will not hurt or eat him.

So I then sent out the word we might be looking for a dog, nice, calm, well trained, or might just see if we could find one to borrow.

My friend tells us about one which is on offer as the owners circumstances have changed and they need a new home for him. He seems to fit the bill, perfect in everyway, house trained, 15 month black Labrador, use to children, very obedient, very calm.

The last 48 hours have gone like this:
Monday
Me: Hello I was passed your number about a dog that might be available, I was wondering if I could come and visit and take some photos to see if it would be suitable, and then if it is, later in the month could we arrange a trial period perhaps.
Owner: Not a problem, how about coming over Tuesday about 4.30 to see him
Me: Great see you then.

Tuesday: Off I drive 20 miles to find said dog. 5 miles from her house, I stop behind 2 cars at some traffic lights and a stupid man in a transit van, rams into the back of my car. Luckily there seems no visible damage, and he was all for driving off and was very put out when I asked for his details and pointed out that the bumper was loose and wobbly plus I was concerned something had been shunted underneath.

So sorted that and got on my way again. Got to said house, she opens the door, lets the dog out for a run round their estate area by himself. He does come when called and sits when told etc. The she puts him on the lead and literally hands me a carrier bag with some food and treats in, and says
Ring me in a few days and is backing into the house.

I had to knock to ask what he ate and when, if he had a bed, how many walks, inoculations etc!

And so I drove home with a lunatic dog in the boot who kept jumping over my backseats. In the end I had to tie him into the boot. I managed to get a message to t'husband who got a friend to bring over their dog cage and a bed.

Little Man freaked when I arrived home but within an hour had come down off the back of the sofa and by bedtime even found the courage to give him one very small, quick stroke. Dog was in his cage at breakfast and Little Man happily wondered into the kitchen and stood talking to him, but wouldn't let him out. Its major progress though!

I however was sat crying. By the time we had taken Dog for a long walk last night and eaten, got the kids to bed etc it was past 10.00 and I had had some work come in about 3pm and asked to complete by this morning. I therefore sat up until 3am doing this work inbetween having to rush Dog out into the back garden with diarrhea, proper full on diarrhea. Thankfully Dog seems trained enough to tell us when he wants to go. We've had 3 wee accidents by the door which is our fault for not reading the signs quick enough.

I then tried to put Dog on his cage at 3am and he barked and howled and cried. I persevered (still having to rush Dog outside regularly to avoid shit splattered walls) until 5am when I was so beat I just had to resign myself and the rest of the house to the noise and flop into bed. 46 minutes later I was back down due to the racket and this is when I wrote the title of this post.

Dog is house trained but he is very skinny and has the squits, he also seems to have flaky skin, so I was convinced he was a sick dog and we would never see the owner again, she would ignore my calls etc. He also has no idea how to walk on a lead and both t'husband an I swear our arms are a good few inches longer this morning that they were last night.

8am this morning I bit poor husbands head off through sheer tiredness and stress and was ready to throw the towel in.

10 hours later and I must admit I have really enjoyed my day with Dog. I have done 2 short walks, then this afternoon S came round with her dog and we took them to the field at the back of the house. I got talked into letting Dog off the lead for ball throwing and he LOVED it. It was really good fun.

After school Little Man asked if we could go and buy a toy for Dog so we went and got one of those ball throwers and Little Man has said he will go to the field after tea with us and throw said ball.  I will let you know if he really does! But maybe it is not so bad after all!!