Morning from Hell

Have you ever had one of those days that you just wanted to go back to bed and start over? Today was one of those.

A little background first: We are keeping my cousin’s dog, Jake, while they are on a cruise this week.. Jake, I think, is a poodle. He looks like one anyway.. A white poodle. Jake sleeps in his kennel at night. The first night we had him was pretty bad. He was up all night howling, barking and screaming to get out. I figured it was just because it the first night way from his real family. And, it turns out, the next night was much better.

Heather had to be in Atlanta today by 7:30 am. Meaning she needed to get up by 4:15 and leave the house by 5:30. Since she was going to have to leave early and I was going to take Tiny Baby to Daycare, I decided to take the day off so I could get some stuff done around the house. At 3:50 am, Tiny Baby wakes up screaming. I wasn’t going to work, so I got up to check on her so Heather could get her last 15 minutes.. When Ansley saw me come into the room, she laid on the bed and rolled to far side clinging onto the railing so I couldn’t pick her up. I have no idea why she did it, but she’s done it twice in the last two weeks. Heather hears her still crying over the monitor and comes up. Ansley lets her pick her up. Ok, Mom is the soother, I can deal with that. Heather sits down in the rocker with Ansley and tries to sooth her back to sleep. Our dog, Ripley, follows me wherever I go, so I have to leave the room when Heather is putting Ansley to sleep so the dog will leave also. We both go downstairs and, in the distance, I hear Jake howling and screaming. I figured he heard the commotion with us and Ansley and wanted us to get him. Since it was only 4:00, I didn’t go in there. Around 4:15, Ansley still wasn’t down, but Heather needed to start getting ready for work, so I went up and relieved her. Ansley was tired enough where she didn’t realize (or didn’t care) when I took over her rocking. At 5:15, Heather came up ready to go and I still couldn’t put Ansley down without her crying out. Heather took her form me and said I needed to go downstairs with her. She also said there was very bad smell around the kitchen area. She went down stairs with Ansley and I went to check on the smell. It was right by the back door that went into the garage. But, that was also the bottom of the stairs that led to my office where Jake was kenneled. I went up the stairs and noticed the smell getting stronger. Ok, Jake pooped in his cage and I’ll to clean it up. I just hope he didn’t get any on him. White Poodle + Dog Poop = Not Nice. Well, I opened the door and saw it… Jake had evidently gotten into Ripley’s food and it didn’t agree with him. He had diarrhea and it was all over the cage sides, the bottom and him. It was EVERYWHERE!!! I couldn’t leave him in there, so I opened the cage and let him out. He was so grateful t be out, he had to show his appreciation by jumping on me. So, now, I have an office that smells like an outhouse, a baby that won’t go back to bed; a wife that needs to leave to go to work, a dog covered in crap running around my house and puppy poop prints on my leg. All at 5:20 in the morning. Boy, if I hadn’t decided to take today off, all this would have changed my mind.

I need to get some order in this chaos. After I had both dogs go outside to do whatever they needed to do, I put the poopy puppy back up in my office. I don’t put him in the cage, but I close the office door so he can’t run all over the house and I open a window so he can breathe. He starts to bark, but I can live with that right now. Heather has given me the baby starts to leave. As she’s getting her stuff ready by the back door, the smell overcomes her and she starts to dry heave. She makes it into the garage and opens the door before she hurls all over the garage. Of course, with all this commotion, neither of us are in a good mood now. She leaves and I take Tiny Baby back to our bedroom. Ripley comes in with us and I close the door behind us to muffle Jake’s barking. All three of us lay on the bed and Tiny baby goes right to sleep. It’s now 5:45 am.

I get up about 7:30 and put pillows all around Ansley so she won’t roll off the bed. I get cleaned up and get dressed. At 7:45, I wake her up and start getting her ready for Daycare. I get her changed, dressed and fed and we head out to Daycare around 8:10. I drop her off and the ladies say, “Did Daddy do your hair this morning?” Ok, so doing girls’ hair isn’t a strong point of mine. I told them to feel free to fix it they way they like and they said they would.
Now it was time to come home and tackle the Poop-Meister. I got home and let Jake out of the office and took the cage out side. Fist things first, I washed both dogs. After they were both clean, I went out and washed the caged. Once that was clean, I came in and washed the food and water bowls that were in Jake’s cage and then I threw all the towels I had just used into the washing machine. It washed once and as soon as it was done, I reloaded the soap and washed it all second time. I also lit some smell-good candles and put some kind of smell-good thing that plugs into the wall in the kitchen. Then I went up stairs and cleaned up where he had spilled poop from the cage and where he laid another puddle of it since he had been out with carpet cleaner and then I steam cleaned the entire area. After all of that and a half a can of “Oust” you can actually stay in the room again. In fact, that’s where I’m typing this up right now.

So, the morning to beat all mornings was coming to a close and I was about to sit down and watch a TV show before I balanced my check book when the phone rang. It was my sister and she preceded to tell me that we had a family member die during the night. My Great Aunt’s husband. We are a tight family and everyone is local, so it’s not like it was a “distant” relative that died. To make matters worse, my Mom and her sister (who are my Great Aunt’s nieces) and their families are on a Caribbean Cruise this week and can’t be notified.. Great. My sister will take care of the flowers and such, but with the 2 sisters gone and their families, my sister and I are the bulk of the family this week. My mom will be crushed when she realizes she missed Papa Doyle’s funeral.

Ok, so what else can happen?? I let both dogs go out back to do their business. Jake backs up to a branch that it right against his tail and precedes to poop all over himself again!!! He’s got crap everywhere again. I get a cloth, wet it down and wash out what I can so he’s not trailing crap everywhere. He’s not as clean as he was, but he’s pretty good now.

So, here I am. 2:30 in the afternoon, the poop is clean, the house smells good, the laundry is done, Heather is back in town from Atlanta and talking to me again, the checkbook is balanced and most of the bills are paid. We still have a visitation and a funeral to attend, but it looks like the morning from hell is over for me.

Although, considering what my Aunt Gunny is going through today, my morning doesn't seem that bad.