Adventures in Zoey-Sitting

Meet Zoey.  She's a one-year-old Schnoodle.  She enjoys playing fetch, chasing bunnies, showing off tricks in exchange for treats, and apparently long rides in the car.

Zoey belongs to my good friends Julia and Jon, who are currently enjoying their honeymoon in Las Vegas.  When they told me they'd booked their trip, my first question wasn't, "Have either of you been there before?," "Which hotel are you staying at?", or "Are you going to see any shows?"  Instead it was, "Who's going to watch Zoey??"  And then began the campaign for Trish to Zoeysit.  I talked about it every time I saw them and I even got other friends involved, so you can imagine my excitement the day Julia asked, "So...did you really want to watch Zoey?"  YES!!!

Julia and Jon left on Wednesday and return on Sunday, so that gives me four whole days to soak up as much Zoey as I can.  We've been having a great time together, though the weather hasn't really been cooperating.  Fortunately Zoey doesn't like being out in the rain much more than I like taking her out in it, so we've spent a lot of time fetching toys (her), digging toys out from under the ottoman (me), and working on her tricks.  I made it a personal goal to teach her a new trick and surprise Julia and Jon with it when they get back, but turns out it's pretty tough to teach a puppy to moonwalk.  (In my dreamworld I teach her to do it every time she hears Billy Jean.)  She's trying though, and to be fair this is my first attempt at training any animal, so she's being pretty patient with me.  She's incredibly smart--she can already sit, lay down, shake (with either paw), roll over, play dead, and high five.  I've been trying to think of what else I might be able to teach her while they're gone.  You know, in case the whole moonwalking thing doesn't work out.

So last week I promised Zoey that we'd go somewhere together this weekend.  We have big plans for tomorrow, but I'll save that for another post.  Today we took a trip to my condo, about 20 minutes from her house.  She has a little harness that hooks around her head and front legs, then clips into the seatbelt of the car so she's all buckled in safely.  When I started packing her bag for our little field trip and got out her harness she pretty much went nuts, racing around the house, jumping up on furniture, and shaking with excitement!  She did great in the car and when we got to my place I took her for a walk around the neighborhood to get some of the energy out.  We've played with some toys, practiced a few tricks, and now she's curled up asleep under my chair at the dining room table while I get a few things accomplished.

Despite the 5:30 wakeup calls the last two mornings (when I ran her down the hall and put her in the bathtub so she wouldn't puke on my white comforter!), my long weekend with Zoey has gone extremely well.  I think tonight we'll curl up on the couch and watch a chick flick together.  (I wonder if Must Love Dogs is on...)  We're both going to need our rest tonight.  We've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow!