Another thing I have delayed dealing with after our move is finding a dog sitter and getting the dog used to and happy with that person. Big steps in that direction the last couple of weeks.
I took the dog over with me to thank the neighbors who helped me call security to get back in my house after I locked myself out. They have to very friendly, calm cats who I have taken care of so I mentioned that Lola loves and is gentle with cats. My friend instantly invited us in and went to get the friendliest cat and we held them about 6 inches apart to meet. They were both quiet and calm so now Lola really wants to go over there to see the kitty! Be association my friend is also now OK to her so she offered to take care of the dog when we are out of town and even sleep over. I'm going to use her as back up or when we are gone more than the 6 hours we can crate the dog.
Then once I decided to leave the dog home for the wedding weekend, I contacted another neighbor who has an elderly dog that has Cushing's disease and was happy with a dog sitter they used for a long trip. We met yesterday with this dog sitter who moves into your house for the duration and Lola was interested in and calm with her so I booked her time. Yeah!
I was initially embarrassed that my typed instructions was 2 pages long but she said it wasn't the longest she had been given.
You may wonder what the big deal is but when you have a dog with Addison's additional stress means they burn through the medicine that keeps them alive at a faster than usual rate so minimizing stress is very helpful. Add to that the fact that she is very unsure of new people due to having been abused before we got her and the right people make all the difference. She only boarded with her foster family in Atlanta and loved them to pieces so was very excited to go to their house. Finding not one, but two, resources here is a great relief.
My son and DIL-to-be have offered to take care of her too but they are across town and work so we would only do that for a weekend away probably. And of course that doesn't work for their wedding weekend.
What we do for our pets!
PS. If you are planning a major move as we did I'd like to add that our to do list was so long that eventually we ran out of steam and simply didn't get everything done. We are circling back now and finishing up some of the not-urgent items that were on that original list. It takes time lol.
Finding a dog sitter must have been very difficult. We have only left Tilde once. My daughter was supposed to stay but she got a last minute call for surgery. We put the dog in a local boarding kennel where our friends could go to visit. The poor little dog hardly ate for two weeks. She is young and healthy but we would never do that again. Fortunately/unfortunately, my husband does not like to travel so
ReplyDeletethe situation does not arise often. We were talking with neighbours (70-ish) about moving to a smaller town. It is certainly a lot of work to move!
Glad you dog was ok once you got home! It is hard for some of them to adjust to being left for a while.
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