The Ugly Stage

You know how some projects get that ugly stage?  Well that's where I am right now with getting the living room ready.  I say of my house that its in fourth stage remodel... so my goal is to make one room that the puppy can be loose in and where I don't have to worry about her getting into things.  My living room is really an all-purpose room (small house).  So, in one corner I have my crafting/sewing table and behind that was all kinds of "stuff" that would have been enticing to a naughty-inclined puppy.  Okay, even a not so naughty puppy would have been attracted to it.

So I brought in a bunch of plastic totes and I've been going through it an putting the contents into those totes according to what it is.  Who knew I had that much stuff?  Okay, I did, but I was pretending I didn't.  Before I started on the craft/sewing corner the living room was looking pretty good, having already dealt with all the parked stuff, reorganizing things and having found a temporary home for my rocking chair.  So now that I'm working on the corner - we are truly in the ugly phase and the crafting and sewing and other stuff has just exploded all over the room.  I couldn't bring a pet worm in with the living room looking as it does right now; fortunately I'm sure I will have it conquered and ready by nightfall today.

Did I mention my house is small?  In addition to tidying, I am also trying to open up the floor plan in the living room so that I'll have a little training area -- since we are already well into the rainy season and will be for the next six months.  That's why I found a foster home for my rocking chair and because where the rocker was, is where the puppy expen is going to go.  I also am going to put the loveseat on those slider things so I can push it back when I'm ready for training sessions. 

Another project I completed was a trip to Goodwill to buy puppy buddies... that's large stuffed animals for the puppy to cuddle up to and lay on and across, just like they are accustomed to with their littermates.  I found four really cute toys, but only one had safe eyes that were appliqued on.  I bought the others anyway and when I got home took a hammer to those eyes (visions of slasher movies, eh).  The next evening, after a long day at work when I didn't feel like doing anything that required a lot of standing, I sewed on new eyes.  They are very cute...

My friend reminded me that children's toys are not necessarily safe for puppies.  There is a risk if the puppy ingests the stuffing from children's toys that the stuffing turns to a gel during digestion and can cause a blockage.  After her reminder I checked the internet and found there is only one story about it - repeated a hundred thousand million times (you know how the internet is).  There is however a Snopes report about it saying that story is a mixture of truth and fiction.  So you should probably read the report and just remember to never let your puppy or dog have access to children's toys when unsupervised. http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/stuffedtoys.asp