I am here, be back soon:)

Sparky..thats much better than a blurry ear and a plugged eye! Hope ya feel better!

Oh yeah, Happy Columbus Day all! I'm assuming everyone's at work. Except maybe Web's wife. Do banks even take Columbus Day off anymore?

Oh, that is not a good subject . . . My wife had to work and they are all not happy about it. They are mad because the other three banks in town are closed but they are not. My wife works for a large regional bank and the main HQ said all branches are open on Columbus day so they have no choice locally.

My wife is kind of hoping that everyone will assume they are closed and not come in today so she could spend some time catching up on other things . . . but she still would have rather just been getting out of bed about now.


Myself, I'm just tired and cranky. We tried a different dog boarding place for our dog this weekend. I was so frustrated and mad at them yesterday, I was ready to go bust the door down to get my dog out.

It turned out that she seems to be just fine, but here's what happened . . .

1. When I called them to ask how often the dogs get let out, they told me that they last let them out about 8:00-9:00 pm at night, then during the day, its every 3-4 hours from 8:00am to 9:00pm again.

2. On a whim, I asked if we gave them a key, if they could take our dog to our house Saturday night after they did the last kennel check and put our dog in her own kennel at home because we would be home not long after that. (I offered to pay extra for that.) They agreed to do that with no extra charge because we only live about six blocks from this place.

3. I specifically told them that she has gotten grumpy when staying at our vet and she has gotten growly at them. They said they figured out with her that if they just open the cage door and back away, she would slowly, and cautiously come out. Then once she was out of the cage itself, she was fine. When explaining this, I felt the kid really wasn't listening to me. I specifically told them that if they had any problems with her to give me a call on my cell phone as we were not under any tight schedules and could come home early if necessary.

4. Saturday night, no calls so I assumed all was well. We got home and no dog in the kennel, but the answering machine was blinking. "Uh, yeah, your dog is really upset and she won't come out of the crate so give us a call tomorrow and we'll work with you for a time when you can get her."

5. Sunday morning I have to get up early for practice at church. I know these people are also church goers but I assume they are still taking care of the dogs on Sunday. Since they had told me "8:00am every day", at 7:30, I called their house thinking someone would be up and getting ready to go to the kennel. I got one of the girls out of bed.

She said, "Its 7:30 on Sunday . . . its church day". I said I understood that but was told "8:00am every day" and that I thought the dogs needed out to pee most every day . . . church day or not. She said, "We'll be in to take care of them before church between 9:00 and 9:30 or we'll be back after church about 12:30".

I said "Actually, the 9:00-9:30 would work best for me to which she replied "Ok, we'll call your cell phone when we get there."

6. We got done with practice and I decided I'd just go to the kennel and wait for them there. I waited for an hour and 15 minutes and they still hadn't come so I had to get back to my own church.

7. Since they they didn't make the 9-9:30 time, I assumed we were on for 12:30. So, right after church, I went back and waited again. They finally showed up at 1:15pm.

As I was sitting there waiting, I was thinking how my dog had not been out to pee at 9:00 the night before because she wouldn't come out of the cage. I was picturing her locked in a cage, sitting and laying in her own pee . . . I was NOT happy when 8:00am didn't apply to Sunday and then they didn't show up either time they said they would.

Then I started counting hours . . . from 9:00pm to 1:00pm is 16 hours those dogs had not been out of the cages . . . because it happened to be "church day".

The only thing that helped is that when they did show up, my dog was clean and dry so they must have mesh floors or something so if they pee in the cage, they don't have to sit in it. That did help me calm down a little.

When I got her, I asked for our house key back and they said it was at home in the bank bag and that they would drop it off at our house "around 7:00pm" that night. At 9:30 they called and said they were on their way home and would drop it off then.

I was so fed up with these people, I was ready to scream. It all worked out ok, our dog is fine and she didn't even really act too stressed but darn it, as a business, if you say you are going to do something . . . do it!

Web I think you need to find someone other than a kennel to take care of her in the future...maybe a neighbor that she likes? leave her at home and have them let her out and feed her. That way she is at least at home.

I agree, I would be so mad. Especially since there is someone who could get her out.

No, our other dogs in the past could but they were calm and easy to deal with. This one is just too high strung and is nuts when she's not in her familiar zone.

That would work . . . and hey, we do need to come see the Black Hills. We'll drop her off at your house while we go explore the area.

You fell for that one AC...but won't Web's boxer chase Sparkycat?

Just wanted to stop in and say a quick hello since I'm pretty much caught up at work today. I miss not being here during the mornings when everyone else is here.

Miss you girls too!


Gosh Web that is upsetting. Hope that she is okay now. You can bring her to my house anytime