Movin' on

Our latest four-legged house pest moved on today, and I find myself a little sad to see her go.


When the kids' friend Shrek came home from his mission trip, Number One Son made it clear that his dog, Serenity, would not be moving "home" until Shrek made the place fit for her to live in, and that meant cleaning up an accumulation of household detritus and getting the swarm of fleas exterminated. NOS was willing to help with the cleaning, but he was not willing to let the dog move back until he was sure she would not become reinfested with fleas.

Shrek had told us before he left that he had Serenity on a diet because she had gotten out of shape, so NOS felt certain Shrek would want her to have a healthy place to live when she went back home. We were never quite sure how much food she was supposed to have, but we fed her amounts similar to what we fed Tank, and she seemed to do fine.

In fact, although she appeared to have gained about a pound (if you can translate exactly from the vet's scales to our household scales), she was in better shape than when she first came to us, and she had gotten as eager to run after a tennis ball chucked across our yard as our two dogs are.

She was definitely getting her exercise; for some reason, Tank developed a fondness for licking her face, and he had great fun tussling with her in the evenings. In fact, the tussling was about the biggest reason I was growing ready for her to go home; I never wanted big dogs, and while I love Tank dearly, he is active enough without the excitement of the evening wrestling matches.

And we had had only one little fracas with Serenity here. Tank is inexplicably defensive about his food bowl (his rule is that he can eat out of any dish in the house, but only he can eat out of his). For some reason I don't know, his bowl had wandered from the kitchen to the dining room (for a while there, it moved itself into the entry way), so that if we fed Serenity in the kitchen, she had to walk near it to get back into the den.

One evening, she strolled out of the kitchen, and Tank apparently thought she was coming after his food. He must have growled or snapped at her, because the Alpha Bitch decided he needed help, so she jumped into the fray. By the time I got home, Serenity had a scratch down the right side of her face. Over the next few days, it first seemed to heal, but then it seemed to swell a little. I kicked into mom mode and treated it with some pet medicines on our shelf, and by today, it was healing nicely.

As soon as Shrek had a chance to rest up from his trip, he kicked into gear and started cleaning his house and made an appointment with the exterminator. They came on a Thursday, and NOS went to check on the job. Both of the boys reported to me on the results: NOS's socks were covered in enough fleas to appear to be polka dot. On Monday, a second exterminator came out, and NOS found only a couple of fleas and pronounced the place safe enough for Serenity.

That was last week; NOS had told me earlier this week that Shrek had decided he wasn't ready to take on responsibility for Serenity again, so one of Shrek's brothers was going to take her in. The brother has a rotweiller, and NOS felt certain Chuck and Serenity will get along fine. Serenity is about 8 years old, so she may only live for a few more years, and with only one other dog in the household, they shouldn't have the problems of friskiness with Tank and snippishness with Alpha Bitch.

But this afternoon, I heard a little different story. The brother in Houston is concerned—from a previous time when Serenity had to be farmed out for a while—that she might have a problem with incontinence, and he isn't sure he and his wife will be up to having two large dogs in the house. So this move to their house may be a matter of "until something more permanent" becomes apparent.

I really don't need three dogs, and I particularly don't need three large dogs (I'm a little jealous right now of my two sisters' pocket-sized chihuahuas), but Serenity is such a sweetheart; I just hate to think of her being passed on just because nobody wants her.

So I'm enjoying the quiet this evening of having only our two dogs at home, but I'm a little blue to see Serenity go.