Big 'ol Stain, Empty Dog Dish

I generally don't leave Buddy alone for too long, if I am camping or staying over at my parents house Buddy comes along. I don't worry about Whitey though, I think he likes when I am gone, I picture him walking around in his underwear, eating cookies till 4 in the morning talking crap to the neighbor cats about how I never let him do anything fun. Anyway, over the Fourth of July I went to Mt. Rushmore for five days, and since I had to leave Buddy I called my co-workers son to come watch the house for me. Her son stayed at my house while I was in Oregon to see Scott and Traci for Thanksgiving, this kid does a good job. He plays with my animals, eats my food, sleeps in my bed and makes $20 bucks a night...I am just now realizing I have to PAY people to live my life...hmmmmmmm. Well when I got home I noticed a new stain in the carpet.

Some people, who have seen my carpet in person, might wonder how I would even notice a new stain on my pink carpet, circa 1987, but it was HUGE. MASSIVE. GIGANTIC. It was by Buddy's, now empty, water dish so I assumed he tipped it over and it was dirt from the pad. So I shampooed the carpet, refilled his water and thought all was taken care of. A few days later...big ol stain was back and there is his empty dog dish. I shampooed, scrubbed, and refilled the water. This whole routine repeated itself over and over and over...I gave up. Big ol stain, empty dog dish was the new normal. Keep in mind this isn't your ordinary water dish either. It holds 1 gallon of water in a container that sits over a long tray. When Buddy or Whitey starts to drink the 1 gallon container fills up the tray, I generally refill it once a week, tops.

I finally decided the 1 gallon container had a crack in it...duh, the water was leaking out, overfilling the tray which explains, big ol stain, empty dog dish. I threw out the 1 gallon container and was now using only the tray for the water dish. All was going well until, again...big ol stain, empty dog dish! WHAT.IS.GOING.ON! It was like some kind of cruel joke...it was like the movie Groundhog day, except not. So I fill the tray with water, lift it above my head, and guess what? It doesn't leak, so what is happening? Why is a dish that has no leaks, isn't overturned, and hasn't moved an inch spilling water all over my house!?! Seriously...guess? It was MADDENING.

Monday I had a realtor come over and do a pre-listing inspection, all went well. We went room by room to go over what needs to be done before listing, took measurements, talked about comparables, all that stuff. I was telling my agent about the big ol stain, I said "It's just water, it does clean up, so the carpet will be clean, but everyday I refill the dogs tray, and everyday the carpet ends up soaked and I don't want to move the water dish because I don't know what is going on and I don't want two big ol stains." We move the meeting to the living room and Buddy went running into the kitchen, I glanced back to see what he was doing...he was lying in his water tray like a little doggie hot tub. He literally straddled the tray and rested his stomach on the bottom of the water dish and just sat there staring at me like I was the idiot, while all the water splashed onto the floor. Even the cat didn't seem to think what he was doing was insane. So today I bought him a kiddie pool, hommie is hot right? Just a lil dog cooling himself off in 100 degree temperatures, right?

I filled up the pool and showed him how to get in; yes, I climbed in and sat down to show him it wasn't scary. Well he thought I was going to give him a bath and went running in the house with his tail between his legs. So I got out of the pool and went in after him. Guess where I found him? In his doggie hot tub glaring at me.

If you need me I'll be floating in my new kiddie pool.