For the past few years my husband and I have not vacationed together. Not because we have a distant relationship, because of our Basenji boy Oli. He has some separation issues and I have some serious issues with my home being redecorated – Basenji Style.
Our last vacation was a ski trip with our 4 children. A wonderful week spent in Keystone Colorado – the snow was awesome, the place was great but the constant calls from home complaining about the dog put a damper on things.
We left my husband’s younger brother Orly and his wife and kids at home to house sit and stay with the dogs. Oli likes him just fine, but after a couple of days he began to realize that HIS humans were not there. Orly tells us that it started just after dinner on the third night. Oli would run to our bedroom, whimper and then run to the window and whimper. This went on for hours … most of the night in fact.
It progressed from whimpering to howling. An ear piercing cry… morning, noon and night. They tried taking him out on walks, people food, having us call so he could hear our voices on the phone. Nothing worked. After 5 days my brother-in-law and his family bailed. They gave the key to the young boy across the street and told him to feed and walk him. Just as we were boarding our return flight I received a call from that young boy’s mother. She sounded as if on the verge of crying. The worst possible scenario flashed in front of my mind’s eye – something terrible had happened to both her son and our dogs – thank goodness it was not that bad, but she repeated that it would be hard for me to restrain myself when I saw what the dog had done to the house. My husband insisted that I not worry, it couldn’t be THAT bad.
We were speechless as we pulled into the driveway. I could see the damage from outside through our picture window which at one time had a window shade and curtains. There was shredded “stuff” everywhere. The large speaker under the TV had a cover on it (I’m talkin’ 1 ft tall by 3 ft long)– we found it on the other side of the house, full of holes. The sofa was pushed out of place, the curtains and shade were completely torn apart, broken glass from a couple of candles that were ON A SHELF, a pair of shoes – in bits and pieces, unidentifiable chewed up plastic-y things everywhere! That was the living room, in the dining room he had made the center piece disappear, none of the chairs were at the table and we couldn’t figure out what was on the table. It continued into the kitchen. Here he must have done a cat walk befitting of a circus act. First on the dining chair (which he pushed over) to the accent table where he carefully crosses over onto a bar stool and somehow onto the window sill. Here, carefully balancing himself he walks along a 4 inch wide window sill and somehow manages a short jump onto the kitchen counter. Once on the counter top he knocked over bottles, chewed my bottle opener from Mexico (a fish shape that I’ve had for over 16 years!), opened the cabinets and took out most of the disposable plates, destroyed the sponge and chewed up the wood blinds over the sink. Later he finished off the disposable plates he took out of the cabinet and one of the bar stool cushions he knocked over (this was the unidentifiable “stuff” in the living room). He pulled the return vent off the door that leads to the laundry room and continued his pillaging there. He knocked over the garbage, chewed the cover on the ironing board, took most of the dirty laundry out of the hamper and pulled the mini blinds from the window. My husband lucked out there – Oli had to have gotten up on the desk to get to the window and surprisingly did not damage anything on my husband’s desk! He did empty out the waste basket full of envelops and junk mail.
We walked in and stood there, speechless and in shock. Oli came out of the laundry room (where we later discovered that he had been sleeping on the clothing from the hamper) – trotted up to my husband, put his head low almost on his shoe and peed. It broke my heart. I vowed not to let him freak out that way again – ever. He is a rescue dog (found wandering in the street) and we don’t know his past so I can only imagine that he must have been alone long enough to hate it but not long enough to become accustom to it.
This weekend we are going away! My husband and I are going away – together! I am leaving Oli at a “hotel” for doggies that has play rooms and a run path and lots of dogs to play with. I took him once before so that he can see, smell and check the place out. The dogs sleep in “rooms” that look like cubicles in an office and so they are not in a kennel like at the veterinarian’s office (Oli doesn’t do well in kennels). They have a schedule full of play time, snack time and nap time and the staff is wonderful! I can’t wait – I’m so excited! I think that he will have a great time and I’m praying that because he will be with a group of dogs, maybe he won’t miss us too much!
