The A-Team

Aaron’s birthday was yesterday and in all honesty, the man deserves a Do-Over. Here is how the events unfolded…

Friday: Aaron left late for work because Arugula (dog) decided to have diarrhea in our master bedroom. It was DISGUSTING. Thankfully, he watched the kids while I did the clean up to include shampooing the carpets.

***For those of you who are not “in the know” let me preface this…Aaron and I have been struggling with the decision to find new homes for the dogs. We just can’t give them the attention they need and deserve. We love our dogs but want what is best for everyone. I had finally made the call to a basset rescue and the dogs were accepted. After thinking it over a couple days, we couldn’t part with them. So I cancelled the pending adoption. We made a promise to allow the dogs to be free throughout the house (they had been confined to 1 room downstairs and an allotted space upstairs as to make it easier for me with the FUR) and to give them more attention (walks, brushings, playtime, etc). The boys love our dogs too and it was just too hard to let go of the them.

Ok, now back to the story…I will give Arugula some credit. She had been grumping and grumping trying to tell us she had to go out. But communication is a bit limited with an animal especially ours since they seem to always be grumping about something. Well, she needed to go out and we missed it. Oops. So Aaron finally gets to work and of course things had blown up before hand and he had some major work to do that night and long story short he didn’t make it home until 2:30 am and got in bed at 3:15 am on his birthday. I also had a very late night. Arugula had to be taken outside about every hour. She was having the worst case of diarrhea. I had gotten ready for bed (late since I was trying to stay up for Aaron to come home and wish him a happy birthday) but I finally gave up. I was calling it quits about midnight when Arugula started whining. I went to get her and took her out but totally forgot I had set the house alarm. So I now have 2 very scared and upset children! Abel went back to sleep fairly easily but Abraham did not. He was shaking so badly and wanted to go to sleep in Mommy and Daddy’s room. I got out his cot and finished up with Arugula and by the time it was all said and done it was now 1:30 am! Abraham gets back to sleep and so do I only to hear my dog again at 2:15 am (I had set up a monitor in the dogs’ room). I quickly turn down the monitor and run downstairs to let her out (I was smarter this time and didn’t set the alarm). Meanwhile, Aaron comes home so I just wait around a bit, say hi/happy birthday and go back to bed. I am out. I wake to the weird smell of dog poop at about 6 am. I think to myself, oh man. She has pooped her bed. Why didn’t she whine and make noise for me to hear her? As I descend the stairs, the smell is sickening and then I see my first floor…dog diarrhea EVERYWHERE. Arugula had blown up her bed so badly that she couldn’t take it and BROKE THROUGH HER CRATE! She actually cracked the plastic and busted through the wire door! She then proceeded to TRACK the diarrhea throughout her room and have several other diarrhea accidents all through my kitchen, dining room and living room. And to boot she vomited twice as well.

I didn’t scream but I exclaimed “Oh No! Oh No!” and woke Aaron and Abraham. With so little sleep and this just disgusting mess…words just can’t quite describe what it felt like. I felt bad for my dog but I was also SO MAD. I sent her outside and just left her while I tended to the mess. Aaron’s birthday was officially ruined. We had made plans to go to the Asian Festival to enjoy some different foods without having to drag me or the kids to a Thai or other weird restaurant (ok, only I think those are weird…I like Chinese and Japanese food but the rest, not so much). Anyway, those plans were pretty much canceled since it was going to be super hot and if we didn’t get there right at 10 am, the kids would never make it. I worked as fast as I could and still had to have help from Aaron. I did the cursory clean up with paper towels and APC (all purpose cleaner), mopped the kitchen with hot water and Pine-Sol, steam mopped my kitchen, set out to spot spray and then shampoo the dogs’ room, living room and dining room. Thank God I had enough shampoo left in the house! Aaron thankfully cleaned out her crate (outside) and reassembled it the best we could. It is functional but if she wanted to, she could escape without much effort. I then gave Arugula a bath and left her outside the rest of the day. I know it was ridiculously hot but we had shade on our back deck, gave her a towel to sleep on and lots of water with ice cubes. There wasn’t much else we could do. She had to potty so frequently that it was just the best solution we had.

I was thankful that Abraham understood the gravity of the situation and was very obedient. He did not go back to sleep and was up at 6 am and we allowed him to play in his room with puzzles and books for about 90 minutes. He was then hungry enough he needed to eat. We were able to get that taken care of too and of course Abel woke for his morning milk about 7:30 am and did not go back to sleep either! He had been sleeping in until 9 am but of course, not today. I took on the cleaning and had Aaron just go have fun with the boys for a bit. It worked out pretty well. The boys enjoyed their Daddy and I was able to get everything clean without much interruption. This cleanup took nearly 5 hours! It was 11 am when I was finished! Ugh! But at least the house didn’t smell like dog poop anymore.

Looking back, I am so thankful the kids woke when they did because we all took a nice nap at 11 am.

We did salvage some of the day. We did take Aaron to Shallo’s to work on his beer list (he hardly ever drinks anymore so this was a real treat) and we opted for low-fat ice cream at Baskin Robbins instead of birthday cake. It was perfect! The car never stranded us and we really did have a nice time together as a family. We ordered Papa John’s for dinner since Shallo’s really didn’t have the “food” we were looking for. After dinner (which Abel LOVED Papa John’s) we had a nice, quiet evening together. The kids went to bed late but without a fuss and Aaron and I enjoyed part of a movie and crashed.

Looking back, we are still bewildered that we didn’t hear our dog breaking through her crate. Their room is right below ours and we hear them kicking and scratching all the time.  You would think we would have heard a crate being torn apart. Plus, I had a monitor right next to my head! What gives!!??!! Well, in my stupor of having only been asleep 30 minutes or so, I turned down the monitor volume as to not disturb Abraham but forgot to turn it back UP when I came back to bed. Most of this fiasco would have been avoided had I done a simple task. I feel terrible. I am mostly responsible for the ruination of my husband’s birthday.

The verdict is still out on whether or not we keep the dogs. Part of us believe that it is wrong to do so, but the other side says do what is right for all of us. We just don’t know.

Just too cute!

Goofy boys

Best picture of my Ham and Taters

Super CHEESE!

Wanting to be just like his Daddy

We partied THIS hard!

Happy Birthday love. Sorry it didn’t quite go as planned…I promise a “do-over” very soon! We love you!

ps It came to me today WHAT is wrong with our dogs since now Archimedes has diarrhea too…they had vaccinations last week! Aha!