Coping With Changes
It’s a crazy time here at the house. When I leave for meetings or class, I NEVER know what I’ll find when I return. One day, Tom had torn down a wall in the basement (which had been done wrong by previous owners) so that he could use the drywall somewhere he needed it. Another day, he tore out all the carpet upstairs. Despite the chaos on two of our three house levels, Lilly is coping with the changes well. We haven’t had any remodeling-related dog behavior issues.
Shocked, I am. I figured all the change would unhinge her.
We even moved the dog crates into the garage (temporarily) because the concrete sealer we’re using in the unfinished basement reeks. The baby gate upstairs remains vigilant, but the few times Lilly followed me upstairs she managed NOT to hurt and scare herself on the exposed tack strips. (New carpet went in upstairs yesterday.)
Lilly does seem confused, though, especially since her crate is ALWAYS on the right and Tom put her on the left in the garage. When we let them out in the morning, they both run inside the house … rather than to the dog pen door. Just my luck, she’ll adjust in time to move back down into the basement.
It’s been noisy, smelly, and pretty stressful as we race the seasons to finish a few home improvement projects.
In the same vein as my need for a smaller car, I’m also purging “stuff” like mad. Clutter stresses me out. There is something empowering about getting rid of things you don’t need, even if at some point you thought you did. We’re not quite done (still have about 1/3 of the basement to go), so I cannot celebrate yet, but it does feel amazing and lighter around here.
More than likely we’ll just finish our basement tasks as planned, but it is tempting to turn what used to be my yoga room into a dog-proof, industry-grade dog suite.
For a decade now, I’ve written feature articles and facility profiles for the Pet Care Services Association (formerly the American Boarding Kennel Association). Many times each year, I pour through pages and pages of information and do phone interviews with petcare centers around the world about how they designed their spaces and their services to serve pets in their communities with training, boarding, daycare, and other spa services. (Grooming is such an “old” word … as is “kennel” for that matter.)
That said, I could probably design quite the “dog room” in the basement, which could serve as a safe, impervious spot for elderly and/or young pets in our future.