Another Day..and the Saga Continues

This posting was originally written and posted in January 2009. I wrote this when Mary's friend, was temporary camping out with us until her new condo became available. Her dog, Tyler, and her African Gray Parrot, Justice, were staying with us as well.

                            *********************************************

At this moment in our lives, we have three women, four dogs, and a handicapped African Gray Parrot living in 1,197 square feet of house. And, it is working out much better than the three of us had ever hoped for. But, there are days when it is a freaking zoo around here!

Take yesterday for example. I was taking a break after getting home from my Saturday job. Two of the dogs started barking because they heard something out on the road. I look out and it is the furniture delivery truck arriving 2 ½ hours sooner than we had expected!

Thankfully, Mary and Lisa had spent time in the basement that morning re-arranging all of Lisa's boxes so there was a cleared area. But, we had planned for the delivery to go through our outside cellar doors and we hadn’t cleared off the snow. Lisa went out in her house slippers and cleared it off while the truck was backing into our driveway. With Mary’s help, they both moved garbage cans and shoveled a walkway from our driveway to the cellar doors. This is with four dogs loudly barking and running back and forth wanting to go outside and poor me wishing for ear plugs and trying to calm them all down.

Fast forward - the furniture has made it to the basement with only minor drama. But now someone is knocking on the kitchen door and the dogs go berserk, again! I squeezed past four dogs to see who it was. It was the delivery driver wanting me to sign paperwork. I explained to him that one of our dogs doesn’t like strangers and that was why I was making every effort to keep her from them.

In the meanwhile, I couldn’t figure out where Mary and Lisa were, but I went ahead and signed the paperwork. As the driver headed toward his truck, I asked him if Mary had given him his tip. He said “No” just as Mary barreled around the corner of the house. She’s yelling, “You locked the basement door and we couldn’t come up through the house!” So I ran back into the house trying to keep the dogs from pushing their way out and I unlocked the basement door. I find Lisa standing on the steps saying “there is a missing table leaf,” while I am handing her the signed paperwork! She squeezes through the mass of fur and goes out to talk to the driver.

It was decided that the driver needed to come in to the house to look at the table in the basement. But thanks to my earlier statement about Chloe, he didn’t want to. So, I had to get a collar on Chloe, walk her to the other end of our house, and hang out in the study with her. She wasn’t a happy camper, but with lots of encouragement and a few dog treats, we made it through this latest hurdle. Come to find out, the table only has one leaf, so all is right in furniture land.

So this is my life right now: four dogs barking, one handicapped parrot talking a mile a minute, and three women all living under the same roof. Life is good.

Until the next time...