[Dailydrool] Home at last

[Elizabeth Lindsey]

After three fun but exhausting weeks in Turkey, we're home at last.  
We got in close to midnight on Wednesday, and Thursday morning I was  
at Jennifer's to pick up our Elsinore and young Charlie. The fact  
that Jennifer was happy for me to come for them in the morning while  
she was getting ready for work, instead of in the evening when she's  
much less rushed, spoke volumes.

Young Charlie, it turns out, was not a good house guest. Again. In  
fact, he was such a poor house guest that the next time we go away  
he'll stay at the doggie daycare center while Elsinore goes to  
Jennifer's. I was extremely disappointed that Charlie hadn't been a  
joy or delight to have around the house, but I wasn't terribly  
surprised. I'd hoped for better from him but really hadn't expected  
it. Not after hearing him cry while I walked away after dropping him  
off there.

He had a grand time playing with Jennifer's two female mixes, one of  
whom helped him remember how much fun it is to take apart bushes in  
the backyard. (I guess I'll keep up the tacky-looking fencing I have  
around my own backyard bushes for a while longer now.) He loves  
Jennifer and exhibited some separation anxiety whenever she went out  
into the non-dog parts of the yard. Even while happily playing with  
his friends, Charlie kept busy lobbying for Jennifer's attention in  
the house. And that's where the trouble lay.

With five hounds and just one human, it was impossible for all the  
dogs to get the amount of attention they're used to getting and want  
to have. I have the same problem when all five dogs are at our house;  
I can't spread myself thin enough for them all. Young Charlie's no  
dummy, and he knew that if he couldn't get Jennifer's attention in a  
positive, he sure could get it by doing something he knew she  
wouldn't like.

Working under the philosophy that negative attention is better than  
no attention, Charlie began peeing and pooping in the house while  
Jennifer was there. She never knew when she entered a room whether or  
not she'd find evidence of Charlie's having just been there. The  
house has a dog door that Charlie has no trouble using, but going  
outside wouldn't rivet Jennifer's attention on him in the way a fresh  
pile of poop on the dining room floor would. Jennifer said that  
yelling at him had no effect because it was clear he really didn't  
care that she was upset with him. He'd stare at her without blinking  
until she finally shut up about his mess, and it's pretty darned  
annoying when a dog does that. I suppose it could have been worse and  
he could have been chewing up her furniture like he did the very  
first time he stayed with her, but deliberately straying from his  
house training is bad enough.

Our Elsinore, of course, was no problem at all.

When I got to Jennifer's house, she was so ready to see the back of  
Charlie that she was sitting on a lawn chair in the front yard with  
both dogs on their leashes. I couldn't blame her. Even though her  
house is all hardwood and tile, it's still no fun to have to  
regularly mop up after a dog you know is perfectly healthy and  
housebroken, a dog who cooly engages you in a staring contest when  
you reprimand him.

Before we went to Turkey, I joked with Jennifer about how after three  
weeks with our two dogs in addition to her three we'd owe her an  
oriental carpet. Now I think we owe her close to a house full of  
them. Instead, we'll repay her patience and forbearance with our  
merry little mischief maker by not asking her to take care of him  
again. When he's not happy about something (like not getting enough  
attention), he makes sure everyone gets the message. He loves the  
doggie daycare place, and he seems to be one of their favorites  
because of his lighthearted approach to life.

Both dogs were very glad to be home again. Elsinore bulled her way  
into the front seat so I could pat her all the way home, and she told  
me in her outdoor voice everything she'd done and thought while we'd  
been gone. I thought Charlie would give me (it's always me and never  
Ken) the cold shoulder like he usually does when we get back from a  
trip, but he's remained as happy to see me now as he was when I drove  
up to Jennifer's. My faithful little boy follows me from room to  
room, and lies down with his back against my feet when I'm in the  
kitchen.

We did and saw so much in Turkey that we're still processing it all.  
But one of the things I noticed right away was the horrible stray cat  
and dog problem. Especially stray cats. The cities and towns are just  
crawling with them. People set out bowls of food, water, and milk,  
but there seems to be no municipal or nonprofit effort to reduce the  
population in any way. People seem to just sort of accept strays as a  
fact of life. Some countries, like Russia and Great Britain, are very  
dog oriented, and you can quickly run out of fingers counting the  
number of well-groomed dogs on leashes you see while walking from  
point A to point B. But in Turkey I saw very few pet dogs, and most  
of them looked as if they hadn't been bathed or brushed in months. I  
saw a few stores that sold pet food and a limited selection of dog  
collars and leashes, but I didn't see any dog toys in these stores.  
Not that young Charlie had earned himself a present from Turkey with  
the unacceptable behavior he was indulging in at Jennifer's....

On a somewhat related subject, my project for the next month or so is  
to organize all the photos I took. I want to put them online somehow,  
be able to write two or three sentences under each photo, and share  
the end result with interested viewers. Can anyone recommend a site  
that will let me do this sort of scrapbook kind of thing with photos?  
Should I go with Picasa or Snapfish, or something like those? Does  
Facebook, which I'm not on, allow this sort of thing? Since this  
question isn't really basset related, please contact me off-list  
about it.

I've realized that once again this post has been primarily about  
young Charlie. It really doesn't seem fair to our Elsinore, who is so  
very well behaved no matter where she is. Why is it that the naughty  
and exasperating basset always gets the most attention and press?

Elizabeth