Hell Week...otherwise known as week 3

Well last week was my birthday week, which should be one of the better weeks of the year. I thought Oliver would sense it somehow and choose that week to stop his shenanigans and get used to the new schedule around here. Unfortunately, he didn't get the memo.

Monday was a surprise snow day, which was absolutely delightful. I hadn't felt well all weekend and we were out of town, which meant things around the house were a mess. So Oliver and I slept in, cleaned the house, went grocery shopping and played in the snow. It was a great start to the week.

Oliver loved eating the snow and getting to run around and chase his Frisbee in it. 

 

Tuesday I came home to find my little black cat in pieces on the floor. Mom gave me the wooden cat in college because I couldn't get a real one. Growing up, we used to have a black cat named Magic, and I loved her. She was the first indoor only cat Mom let us have after several indoor/outdoor cats got ran over. Unfortunately, my brothers tormented her so she wasn't all that friendly, and she would occasionally throw up her food. This made her a bit of a pain to the rest of my family. That's why none of them cared much when she "mysteriously" disappeared while I was on a mission trip in high school. Dad still says he didn't purposefully let her out, but I'm not so sure. Anyway, the wooden cat became a fixture around our house. The bunko ladies dressed it up and our nephews were either deathly afraid of it (Asher) or loved finding it in the corner of the dining room each time they came over (Henry and Conner). So that was quite disappointing but life goes on. I cleaned up the mess and we hung out for a bit before leaving to watch a movie with our life group. We didn't get back from the movie until after 10, and when we came home, we found half eaten candles on the floor. Oliver had managed to get them off of the shelf hanging over the couch. Unfortunate, yes, but the candles were not expensive, and Oliver did spend a lot of time alone that day, so it wasn't that big of a deal to me.

I sent this picture to both Stacys and they showed it to their little ones. Asher said, "I don't like that cat anyway." and Henry said, "Oh no. Boo! Boo!" 

On my birthday, I came home to find the other three corners of our coffee tabled chewed up, as well as the slip cover on the couch. That was the last straw for me. Instead of going forward, we were taking steps back. We had yet to find a cage that would contain Oliver and leaving him in the house was obviously not working. When Kyle got home, I told him Oliver had to be outside the next day. Kyle didn't agree with that plan and insisted we try to make his cage more secure so he couldn't get out.

Too bad the floral theme doesn't really go with my living room decor or having a damaged slip cover would be no big deal. 

So the next day we put him in his cage and hoped for the best. I had a webinar to attend Thursday at lunch, so I didn't plan on going home. However, I got a frantic call from Kyle saying that our house was destroyed and I needed to come home. I shook my head and headed that way. Oliver had managed to get one of the doors of his cage open. While he was out, he did more damage to the coffee table, ate part of our other couch and broke into our TV room to scatter my newly organized pictures all over the floor and snack on a cardboard box. It all cleaned up, but the coffee table and couch aren't fixable. Kyle finally agreed that outside was our only option.

Our poor couch. It was a hand-me-down but we weren't planning to get rid of it any time soon. He could have at least stuck to one of them and not messed them both up!

So much for the hour and a half I spent organizing photos...

Friday started out great. Oliver was outside but he did fairly well. He was still in the yard when I got home and he hadn't done any digging. He did chew a few items like the shoes Kyle had on the back porch, but they had holes anyway. We played fetch in the yard, but I could tell Oliver had been running around when we were gone because he wore out fast. That night Kyle and I went to the Student Foundation's annual concert out at the Tumbleweed. While we were gone, Oliver got out of the fence...twice. Our neighbors found him the first time and put him back in, but later when they went outside, he was sitting in our driveway waiting for us to get back. They took him over to their house so they could keep an eye on him until we got home. (Bless them!) We walked the fence to try to find out how he had escaped, but there were no open gates or holes, so we think he must have jumped the fence.

By this time, we were stumped. Sure, we could get an electric fence, but at this point, I felt like whatever we tried was doomed to fail. We decided to give it the weekend and see how things went.

We woke up at 4 a.m. Saturday morning to find that Oliver had thrown up in the corner of our room (all those years with Magic helped me prepare for this!). Oh what a joy. I tried to go back to sleep after that, but I kept tossing and turning, wondering what we were going to do with him. On Saturday, I had plans to go to a pajama and crafting brunch with some friends. I'd really been looking forward to it but now the thought of leaving Oliver was incredibly stressful. We moved his crate outside and tried putting him in that while I was gone. Unfortunately it was cold and rainy so I felt horrible. Kyle called the shelter to talk to them about bringing him back and updated me just before I got out of the car. When the girls asked me about Oliver, I was a weepy mess. They were all very sweet and sympathetic, but I still felt like a crazy person for crying over a dog! I never thought that would be me.

After a few hours, I came home and was surprised to find Oliver still in his cage. We curled up on the couch and slept together for most of the afternoon. Kyle came home early so we went for a walk to burn off some energy. On Sunday we went to Ponca for Kyle's parents' anniversary. Oliver did great and was wonderful with our nephews, which made Kyle love him even more. By Sunday night we'd ruled out taking him back and decided to make a better effort to tire him out in hopes that he will calm down some during the day. Although losing an hour was painful, we are loving the fact that we have more light in the evenings now. That helps a lot since Kyle doesn't get off until 6:30, and I am not entirely sure I could control Oliver on a solo walk.

So far that seems to be working pretty well. His cage is still outside and we have reinforced it with some clips as an extra precaution, but he has stayed in it for three days straight now. (knock on wood) I'm not sure if this is a permanent solution, but it's working and that's all we can really ask for.

I love it when he sleeps. He even has doggy dreams and his paws start moving. It's precious. 

We are loving the fact that there are so many sidewalks on our side of town. It's definitely a plus! 

He is so great with the boys, and it's so cute to hear them call out his name. 

The shelter did call me on Monday to see if we were bringing him back. I told her we were trying a few more things before giving up, and she seemed pleased. She told me that they are a kill shelter and the fact that Oliver is a big, destructive dog would make him hard to place. I don't think I put two and two together before her call, but needless to say, we will never be taking him back there. It is incredibly strange to me how attached we are to the little guy after such a short period of time, especially considering how much of our property he has destroyed. I guess that proves love is blind. We want very badly for Oliver to have a happy life, and we hope he can have that with us. I guess only time will tell, but I can confidently say that Oliver has carved out a space for himself in our hearts and that won't change no matter what the future brings.