Dogsitting

Being jobless and homeless in Jerusalem has given me some interesting opportunities to do things that I never, ever thought I would do. 

Like dogsitting. 

Those of you who know me will be as shocked as I was to hear that for the past 3 weeks I have been housesitting/dogsitting for a couple in the LDS branch here who went back to the States as their daughter just had a baby. (How could I say no to free rent for 3 weeks?!)

Shadow is a cute litte dog and doesn't require too much from me. The first week was a little rough but we finally got used to each other.

Some things I learned from Shadow:

*When I get home and walk in the door, no matter how long I have been gone, he is going to jump on me at least 8 times.

*Several times a day he needs to lick me. I have learned to just stick out my hand for a couple of minutes and let him lick and lick. It saves my face and my legs.

*When I say "go" or "outside" he will immediately go into excitement overload and will jump on me until his leash is secured and we are outside.

Some things Shadow has learned about me:

*There are some things I don't share. My bed is one of those things.

*I am not a happy camper when my legs get licked early in the morning.

*The food I eat (cereal and sandwiches) is not that exciting, even for a dog.

Overall, however, things have gone pretty well, especially if you look at my extensive (ahem, nonexistent) dogsitting history. We only had two major mishaps:

One day Shadow started acting like a very drunk dog. He was staggering around the house and his vision was unfocused. I got really worried and had two thoughts: either he is going to die or he is about to throw up. Luckily it wasn't the former, but unluckily for me it was the latter! And he happened to choose the only rug in the house (the floor is tile) to throw up on. When I saw this disgusting thing, I did the thing any responsible adult would do: I called my mom! Thankfully she was home and, after complaining to her, I calmed down and cleaned up the rug. It was pretty nasty, though.

Another day I walked into my bedroom to grab my jacket. I usually keep the door closed but I didn't even notice that it was open before I walked in. I left the light off because I was just going to grab my jacket and walk out. Imagine my surprise when I reached out to grab my jacket and instead grabbed Shadow's face! I'm not sure who was more startled: me by him, or him by my scream! I did learn, however, to turn the lights on before I walked into rooms!

Tomorrow the dogsitting days come to an end. It's been thrilling, but three weeks in one place is almost getting to be too long for me, and it's time to move again...