Nicky's In The House!

It's hard work being a dog sometimes.

A week ago, Mommy and Daddy finally came to get me. Every time Mommy visited her mommy, she would say, "Soon, Nicky" but she didn't come until Saturday. Daddy put me on a leash and made me sit in the backseat of the car. He didn't want me to bark or jump on Mommy. I was really nervous because car trips don't always go to a fun place. Sure enough, Mommy drove straight to the vet's office. I had to get weighed, and get shots, and the vet scrubbed the inside of my ears with a paper towel. None of this was fun.

We did go to Tractor Supply. A nice lady there gave me a biscuit. And Mommy went into McDonald's and came out with just one hamburger that was all for me. But that didn't make up for what happened next. She took me back to that place with the big bathtub and the chain and she gave me a horrible bath. I put on my most miserable eyes so she would know how unhappy she was making me, but it didn't make any difference. Daddy took lots of pictures, and now my humiliation is on Mommy's Facebook page.

After I got all washed and dried, Daddy took me for a long walk. We went to a place where there were Christmas things being sold. Mommy went in the door. Daddy kept walking me around outside. Whenever we went past the door where Mommy went in, I barked so she wouldn't forget to come back and get me. Finally she did, and we went home.

This is a different home. Little One warned me about that in a letter this summer. It isn't the one with the scary monster and the lion cage. In fact, I haven't seen any lion cages yet. There is a couch in this house, and it is ALL MINE! Little One is here too, but she doesn't bother me as much as she did at the other house.

I have tried to be good in this house. Mommy doesn't like it when I eat food off the kitchen counter. And she got kind of upset last night when I pulled all of the trash out of the garbage can and put it all over the kitchen floor. It's her own fault, really - did she honestly think that putting a paper bag over the top would make me forget that there were ham scraps in the bottom? Then I was really thirsty. But it was worth it.

The humans are all talking about what I did on Tuesday. Mommy left for work and Daddy was in the shower. I had to go to the bathroom - I mean, I really had to go! - and there was no one to help me open the door. I knew that I shouldn't go in the living room, or the kitchen, or the mud room, so I looked for a better place. I walked up the stairs and went into a big room where there were some dirty clothes on the floor. That looked like the perfect place! But when Daddy came out of the shower and saw the pile I had left on his laundry, he was really, really mad. So now I try to only go outside.

I get special treats sometimes. Little One throws up if she eats greasy food, so when Mommy has leftovers from the kitchen that she wants a doggy to eat, I get to have them. The other night, she quietly snuck out to the mud room when Little One was sleeping on the armchair and gave me a bowl of something called chicken burritos. She left it out on the counter while she went to a concert at school and when she came home she was saying something about "temperature danger zone" and she didn't want to eat it or feed it to Daddy. So I got to eat it all - right on the couch!

It's very different here. There aren't other dogs, and we don't walk on a sidewalk when we go for a walk. That's fine with me because the salt and stuff on the sidewalk hurt my paws. And Mommy doesn't have to carry around a plastic bag to pick up our poo. I'm glad, because that was a really weird thing for her to do. I don't miss having to stay in a cage all the time. I hardly ever have to bark at night, because the doggy couch is so comfortable. It's nice and warm, too.

I like my home.