Cricket

My next door neighbors had to go out of town this past week because of a death in their family. They asked me if I could look in on their almost 15 year old dog Cricket for a few days. They just wanted me to feed him and let him out a couple times a day to go potty, but I told them that I would just bring him to my house, if that was ok with them. They were not expecting that but were pleased none-the-less that Cricket would get to have a 'vacation' while they were out of town.

I brought him over on Wednesday night and since he knows me and since we were just next door, I figured he would settle in quickly, but I was wrong about that. For the first two hours, he paced around the entire house, sniffing every inch of carpet, every nook and cranny, around and around and around he went. I tried distracting him with the dog treats . . . I managed to get him to lay down for a minute or two while I gave him a couple treats but as soon as the treats were gone, he was back to pacing around the house. Nothing I said to him seemed to help, so I decided to just let him do what he needed to do and knew that eventually he would tire himself out.

Having Cricket here was such a different experience for me than living with Lucky. For one, Lucky was very independent and "did her own thing" most of the time. By contrast, Cricket is a little on the needy side. He did not like to be away from me and followed me everywhere I went, including the bathroom. If I sat still for a while, he would finally lay down and relax but the second I moved, he would be up again, not wanting to miss out on a single thing that I did.

If the phone rang, he had to follow me into the kitchen to answer the phone. If I needed to go to another room for a minute, I would try to explain to him what I was doing and that I would be right back, but it didn't seem to make a difference. If I needed to get something from my office upstairs, he followed me up the stairs and then back down the stairs. When I did laundry, he was back and forth to the laundry room with me, observing as I put things in the dryer, or folded the dry clothes. It was almost comical. I never took a single step for three days without him at my heels.

I didn't sleep well the nights he was here, in part because he snored more than any dog I have ever known. I kept waking up in the middle of the night, trying to identify the strange sound I was hearing, then realizing it was Cricket "sawing logs" on his dog bed on the floor, I would roll over and try to go back to sleep . . . until a sound he was making woke me again. If I got up in the middle of the night to go the bathroom, Cricket was up, following me in there and trying to get me to pet him. I said to him several times, "Cricket, you are a sweetheart and I adore you, but you have got to give me a little space!" :-) But his desire for attention and companionship seemed to outweigh any desire I may have had for a little space.

Regardless of my lack of alone time while he was here, I couldn't help being entertained by him and I also found myself in awe that a big dog like Cricket (he's a lab/spaniel mix) could be so healthy and so mobile at his age. For those of us who have struggled through health challenges with our dogs as they grew older, you know what a gift it is to have an older dog who is doing as well as Cricket is. The only issue he has is a lack of hearing but even that didn't stop him from being able to track my every move. :-)

When his family returned, I brought him back home. He was thrilled to see them and they were grateful that he was well taken care of while they were away. I was glad I was able to help them in some small way, when they were going through such a difficult time. I'll confess, I did sleep really well that night and did enjoy going to the bathroom by myself. :-) But I also know that if they needed my help again, I'd take care of him again in a heartbeat.