Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Pre-Traumatic Dog Disorder

My mother-in-law, hostess of my forthcoming baby shower, totally stressed me out tonight. She seems to have developed a sudden complex about our dogs coming to her house. Now, keep in mind, we've been taking the Bug there since she was tiny (i.e. almost four years) and it's never been a problem. But now that we have the Stinky-Big-Headed Foster Dog (who is in the process of being formally adopted by us and is really no longer stinky), she seems to have an issue.

Out of nowhere tonight, she wants us to kennel the dogs instead of bringing them to Detroit. Keep in mind, that we leave for Detroit in three days, we have no papers yet for the Foster Beast (so couldn't kennel him anyway) AND I HATE kenneling the dog at all, especially the Bug who is my little fur child. Not to mention that we're talking probably $300 for kenneling them here in Chicago anyway.

My mother-in-law is always so vague and round-about that it's hard to find out exactly what she wants you to do or what her issue is. We have always been very careful about our dog in her house (keeping her off the furniture, making sure she doesn't track mud or water around, making sure she behaves, etc) and she has always been very good. So, I'm not sure why us visiting with the dogs is suddenly problematic. We had the foster dog at our brother in-laws house in July for a few days also and he was perfectly well behaved.

But now apparently, Mrs. Craze-in-Law said we can bring the dogs, but she wants them to stay in the basement. I thought at first that she meant she wanted them in the basement for a couple hours when folks are coming over after the shower. But upon further conversation, I'm thinking she means for the entire duration of our two-day visit (but, of course, she wouldn't come right out and say that).

Has she lost her mind? I'm not leaving my dogs in a dark basement for two days and nights.

The whole conversation is still stressing me out a few hours after the fact. I told Craze he needs to call his dad tomorrow and get to the bottom of it all. That's the only way we'll know what's really going on.

I was really looking forward to my shower. But now the whole idea of it is stressing me out. I have pre-traumatic dog disorder!

2 comments:

Ms. Mamma said...

I'm so sorry, Maggie. That sucks. Why oh why do people do these things?! I wish you had a good dog sitter for your house or you could stay at a place that allowed dogs. Try not to stress to much...it will be okay. XO

Maggie Sumner said...

Thanks, Ms. Mamma. I seriously think my mother in law might be losing her marbles just a little bit. I guess if she gets really annoying about the whole thing, we'll just only stay one night and come home early. I'm not making my dogs stay in the basement for two full days. It's ridiculous.