Drugging Doggies vs. Lazy Cats

I've been house/pet-sitting this week for a friend and she has nothing but dial-up. Needless to say, I haven't been logging online at night - - Yes, since I finally gave in last year and ordered cable modem, I CAN'T GO BACK to dial-up. I can't. Anyhow, one thing my friend's home does have is a rather large HD TV with digital cable. Needless to say, I've watched more TV in the past few days than I have in the past few months' total time combined. Tuesday night, I stayed up until 3am watching Anthony Hopkins in "The Edge." I couldn't stop myself, and frankly, I didn't want to! I knew I should be in bed and knew that I was being silly, unable to TURN OFF THE TV, but the movie was scary without any supernatural mischief [RELATED TANGENT: Aliens and paranormal flicks freak me the hell out! The Ring? -OMG! The Exorcist? -I'm gunna puke! Alien -Imagine me hiding my eyes behind a gummy bears celephane wrapper! Those flicks gimme' me nightmares! ~ yet I love a good scare!] I was riveted (despite some lousy lines), and I felt like I was a college sophomore again; yes, a sophomore, not a freshman. [SEMI-RELATED TANGENT: I didn't have a TV at all my frosh year (didn't miss it at all), and we only had a TV my soph. year because we had rented a TV/VCR combo (six of us paid $10/person each semester ~ not bad, eh?) for playing Tetris (and Tetris only - see here) and watching the occasional video rental, plus recorded episodes of Seinfeld and The Simpsons, lovingly provided by my roomie Suzanne's sister, Wendy, who lived in Salt Lake. We didn't have cable TV, nor did we have any TV station reception, none whatsoever. I know I've told this story before, um, as the link above indicates... duh!] So -um- yeah, watching "The Edge" until 3am, I felt like a college soph. again in that I was relinquishing sleep for a movie. Hardly ever now, do I fall asleep during a movie -I never do- nor do I ever stay up for a movie - - I'll just turn it off and go to bed. However, as a college undergrad, I could stay up until the crack of dawn to finish a movie, even if I had to go to work by 4AM.
Okay, enough about the TV.

So yeah, I'm house/pet-sitting and I have two doggies in my care right now... 1) There's Rebel, who is like a stout mini-black lab, but not, and his tail is like a thick, stubby windshield wiper stuck on "high", madly and stiffly swishing from side to side. He tries to hump my leg as I walk in the door and runs after me, trying to hump my legs as I walk down the hall or into the kitchen. When I turn around and tell him NO, he pouts like a little kid. Despite the leg humping, he has a great puppy-like wiggle-bummy when he's happy = very super cute and lots of energy. 2) And Jackpot, a creamy cockapoo [TANGENT: Who the hell thought that'd be a great name for the breed? even if it is derived from the combination of its origins; "cocker spaniel" and "poodle"!?!], he too has a great puppy-like wiggle-bummy when I walk in the door, but he calms down well before Rebel looses his wriggly wiggling. Poor Jackpot is 12 yrs old and his age is already hitting him with hearing loss and multiple medications to be administered; thyroid? 2 kinds of ear drops? infection pills? He must be given his drugs twice a day... Now, I've drugged animals before and this lil' Jackpot has been the EASIEST, hands down! There's o need for a 2-person team effort hold down, no jamming pills down anyone's throat, no hiding pills in chunks of cheese... He'll eat 'em plain, right out of my hand!!! And the ear drops? There's no growling, no chase down or need to corner anyone; no struggle - he lets me hold his ear open and drip the drops in, nooo problemo. Drugging this doggie is a breeze.

The Real Point of my Post, however: I've had the chance to watch/care for these two wiggle-bummy boys for a few years now. This current stint as a pet/dog-sitter has confirmed for me, I'm just not a dog person. Don't get me wrong, doggies are cute and adorable and so loyal and so doting, I know, and I do all the baby talk and playing and cuddling with them, but they are SOOOOO FREAKIN' NEEDY!!! With these two, once the morning routine is done or after the welcome-home routine is complete, at all other times I find that I'm feeling guilty. When with them, any lil' move I make from a stationery position or any mere shift in weight while sitting on the couch with my internet-less laptop (in front of the HD TV), they both stop whatever it is they're doing and they both wait for my next action, with those big, brown, swollen puppy eyes. They follow me everywhere! I can't even take a pee in peace! (There's another story here -a cat story- but I won't start.) Of course they're cute, and it's amusing to see just how thrilled they are whenever I talk outloud to them about anything, as long as it's spoken using a babytalk-voice, but otherwise, I feel guilty all the time! I'm sure, if it was up to them, we'd just play, play, play and cuddle, cuddle, cuddle all of the freakin' time! I.CAN.NOT.DO.IT.FULL.TIME. They're stinky, smelly (as if 'stinky' and 'smelly' are two different attributes), drooly, dirty, dusty, snotty, furry lil' thesis-papers-disrupters! If I had a dog of my own, I'd go for walks with 'em morning and night, I'd scoop the poop daily, I'd have to move so I could have a backyard for warm outdoors, lazy-day doggie-lounging easy-access and crazy run-around-and-catch-your-tail play, and I'd have to tear out all the carpeting in my home and, and, and I'd have to have a labotomy!!! I can pet-sit, but I can't handle owning a needy doggie of my own.

Now Dog lovers, hold off! I already know that cats can be dirty and smelly too, but I have indoor cats ~ prestine, clean, oh-so tidy kitty cats! [TANGENT: Living in a city and off a busy road, I don't think an outdoor cat would last long, plus it's a fact that the average lifespan for an outdoor cat is 5 years, while an indoor kitty can live into his/her twenties. And yeah, I know, I know (I can hear my father speaking right now) - - "cats crap in a box and scrap at the litter with their paws" - - Yes, they do, BUT THEN they self-clean! Dogs? they just track their shit all over the place, completely oblivious! And although I know my boys -any cat- would love to be outside hunting birdies and mice, rolling in the dirt, indoors or out, cats sleep an average of 17 hrs/day, people. Here are my rationalizations for their in-house, imprisioned state: #1) They're safer indoors (irrefutable truth) and #2) I don't tease my kitties with trips outside, so they don't know what they're missing... #3 They'd rather lay around snoozing anyhow. I adore my lazy lil' cats.

I could write on and on, in what ways my personality favors cats over dogs, but I'll save it for a later post, maybe; this post has rambled on long enough. Tomorrow night, I'll be back home with my boys ~

P.S. I know my post title implies I'd be writing about drugging doggies, while it turns out, I wrote so very little about it. Furthermore, I wrote about a sweet doggie who is so easy to drug, but who said my post titles have to make sense? "Drugging Doggies..." sounds funny to me.