oh the horror!

last night, my dreams were filled with anxiety something terrible was happening to the dog.  obviously - nothing was wrong! i'm just a crazy person and she's my child, apparently.

we're going to garret's grandmother's place for thanksgiving - she lives in a senior housing community in new jersey.  we're going there and back in one day, but the initial thought was that we should probably put murgy in a kennel.  we live in the puppy capital of the world and i presumed we must have scores of top-notch kennels around here.  UNTIL i started reading reviews of the local kennels.

of one local kennel, a yelper writes:

"What I noticed next slowly turned my surprise to worry.  I saw his wound!!!  I asked what happened and can you believe what the manager asked me?  He said, "Oh was that there before you brought him in?"  I was SHOCKED.  First of all my dog had been there for a week and this wound was fresh, I couldn't believe he had the nerve to ask me that."

YIKES!  so i think "alright, well, that's not the place to go - i'll look elsewhere."  that's when i found!

"I took my precious dog "family member"  to this place for boarding after going away for a business trip for a couple of days. Well the owner and manager called me on a Friday night to inform me that my dog had been killed and that he had a heart attack or stroke but in any event he wasn't sure what happened to him and that he wanted to drop my dog off at my house, as if my dog were a bag of dirty clothes or groceries. 

He continues to share, that, after his staff gave him a bath and put him in the dryer for over an hour. Yes, you've read correctly, they put my small dog, a perfectly healthy 2 year old pug in the HOT heated dryer for over an hour."

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD.

i put off picking one of these kennels for more than three weeks, hoping the existence of thanksgiving would somehow evaporate.  then on wednesday, i realized i better get down to business, because all of these people require a pre-boarding interview with the dog and its parents.


[side-note:  you read that correctly.  in order for a dog to go to a kennel here in pup slope, they must go to an interview.  that's nice that they do their due-diligence and all, but yikes! i can only imagine what getting into people day care is like here.]


so i start click, click, clicking away at the various sites and it's like i develop hives.  i mean i didn't actually develop hives, but you know what nervous kids go through to develop hives?  it was like that.  i almost started to cry.  (I KNOW I'M CRAZY!)  i just could not imagine leaving this dog in a place where there were driers for her to potentially get left under!


i expressed this to garret, who pointed out that as we're going there and back in one day we're really only going to be gone a couple more hours than we are when we leave her here during the work day.  good point.  he also pointed out that we could ask a friend come take her out and hang out with her a bit so she wasn't alone all that time.


another good point!  


i'm already planning the cookies i'm going to bake for said friend, who has agreed to come over on thanksgiving and spend time with the dog.  


i may be a crazy lady who is afraid of kennels, but at least i'm a crazy person with baking skills!