Ella Smella
I love my dog Ella. She’s a sweet little cuddler and is really the ideal lap dog. She’s recently become protective of myself and Caleb, so she takes a little time to warm up to strangers, but that’s not what I’m blogging about today.
She has not gone to the bathroom all day. After our inclement weather, our outdoor porch area got flooded. That, and there are no gutters around the back of our rented house, so when the rain gets bad there is literally a waterfall onto our porch area. The porch area has an annoying lemon tree (which I loved when we first moved here, now I despise fruit bearing trees that are so close to the house) as well as Ella’s potty area. We installed a doggy door and Ella has always been very good of taking care of her business outside as she needs to.
After the bad weather hit, Ella developed a fear of going out there. We’d even take her outside for a long time, she’d *pretend* to pee, then pee inside the house within five minutes of coming back in. You can imagine what the past week has been like. We take Ella out and sit outside with her for way too long, trying to encourage her to go. We go out to her potty area on the porch and take her to other outdoor places, but she’s got a bladder of steel and refuses to let loose. Or she’ll pretend and we’ll think all is well and good (it’s hard to see underneath a miniature dachshund to see if they are actually going to the bathroom). Then, as soon as we’re in the house, she’ll hang around for a bit then casually slip into a nearby room. You can tell when she’s been naughty because she’ll come into the room looking all guilty.
So, Ella usually sleeps in her kennel at night and we sometimes welcome her into our bed for a little while in the morning (like we were doing in above pic). But, today there was no welcoming into the bed. She was put outside for almost an hour and refused to go to the bathroom. So, I put her back in her kennel for awhile and then stuck her back outside. She’s been outside for about five hours now and still has not gone to the bathroom. Josh said I should let her in and I said, “I guarantee that she will go to the bathroom in the house the first chance she gets so, NO, she’s staying outside.” I put her dog bed out there and she has water and plenty of space. It’s a nice day, there is no rain. I keep checking on her to see evidence of going to the bathroom, but she has held out in this protest so far. That dog sure sticks to her guns.
I just hope her kidneys don’t explode like Grandpa Simpson’s.