Ready and Waiting

Today was a busy one here at Casa de Pony. I was elbow deep in preparation for puppies. The excitement is a palpable aura around me. It's been nearly a year since we've had puppies around these parts, and it's well past time.

Claire, our corgi, went to the groomer today to get her undercoat stripped out. It's called Furminated, really. Sounds far worse than it really is. It really is a good brushing and a spray to help loosen the undercoat that sheds like crazy when an outside dog comes in. Or a mama is shedding her coat after birth. Or like a corgi sheds on a normal day. Those corgis can shed, man. It's their super power. So she's less fluffy than she was, but still just as gorgeous. And now living inside with us.

I HAVE A CORGI IN THE HOUSE AGAIN. *ahem*

Living inside with us means that she needs a crate to sleep in, so I had to wade through tall grass and fight cobwebs sporting large and striped spiders to get the extra crate out of the storage shed in the far corner of the yard. I actually had to get two crates, since Darla will need a larger one as well. (Darla, too, is expecting. The same day as Claire, actually. Is that the most exciting and fun thing you've heard today? No? WELL IT SHOULD BE.)

These crates are obviously not in the cleanest environment, being in a storage shed in a corner of the yard, protected by large cobwebs and tall grass. Cleaning happened with a garden hose, bleach, Pine Sol, and old rags. No diseases, yo. Not that we've ever had diseases, but one never knows when a stray mouse will poop something contagious into a crate and contaminate the whole thing. Not that there was mouse poop, either. But health is first when puppies are involved.

I had to do the four step crate shuffle in the house to get them all to fit, and shuffling crates means that the crate areas get deep cleaned before crates go back where they need to be. More Pine Sol, more old rags, and some scrubbing of floors, walls, and baseboards happened.

I then bathed Jack because he was chasing golf balls being chipped into the yard and overheated himself in the nearly 90 degree weather. To avoid a heat stroke, I gave him a cool bath and made him lay down in his new crate. That generated an extra dirty towel, and since I had a pile of dog towels to wash from the four step crate shuffle and cleaning, I tossed them into the laundry with yet more bleach.

We're now out of bleach.

But the house is ready for puppies.