Psycho Dog...

I love my mom more than anyone, but at least I am able to function without her. Clearly this is not the case with our family dog.

My parents spend their summers at The Establishment North. They are only a five hour drive from my mom’s mom in Philadelphia. Actually, my mom’s entire family lives within one square mile of each other right outside the city. Which is perhaps the main reason she fled to Florida with The Captain right after they got married... Anyhow, Mom hardly gets to see my grandmother. Well, one of Mom’s cousins from Philly sent her a wedding invitation for a ceremony to be held this past weekend. The Captain wasn’t interested in making the trip, and suggested that Mom go down on the train for the weekend while he and the dog took care of the ranch.

So my mom kissed my dad and the dog goodbye and boarded a train for Philadelphia this past Friday afternoon. The wedding was not until Sunday, but she wanted to spend an extra day with my grandma. They were having a very good time together down there shopping, cooking and catching up.

But back at the ranch… The Captain was having a rough go of it with the dog. Katie the Wonder Doberman was upset. Katie loves my mom and she always gets a little nervous when Mom is not around. Usually The Rockette or I are there, so it’s not too bad – but when we aren’t there, The Captian has to call for reinforcements. In Florida he calls our friend Bernice - the dog is still not happy, but she loves Bernice so it’s OK. But this time, he and Katie were in Vermont so The Captain had to get a little creative.

Friday night, mom has been gone 5 hours and Katie was just whining and wandering aimlessly around the house. She wouldn’t go outside and she wasn’t eating. Saturday morning came and it was the same story. The Captain tried taking her to McDonald’s for breakfast (Katie loves McDonald’s). But it didn’t work. Then he brings her to our neighbors to play with their dogs, but there was still no change in behavior from Katie. She just wouldn’t do anything. He took her back home, where all she did was whine and wander a circle around the downstairs of the house, walking through the kitchen, hallway, living room, dining room and kitchen again.

By late Sunday morning, she still hadn’t eaten and had wandered that downstairs circle for another two hours. Well, this really freaked The Captain out. He thought Katie was going to have a nervous breakdown and was afraid she might die on him. It was either this fear or the fact that he REALLY did not want to deal with her anymore that led him to put the dog in the car and DRIVE FIVE HOURS to Philadelphia so that she could be reunited with Mom.

As soon as Katie saw mom, she was just fine. Mom and Grandma were a bit surprised to see The Captain at the door with the dog, and then he explained why he was there. Us kiddies were never as bad as that! Talk about separation anxiety!

Ah... just another example of why we call her CRAZY KATIE.