Every second Tuesday, of every month, I clean a friends house. I’ve been doing this for almost a year now. I don’t charge much because the house is pretty well maintained. I basically go through with a duster and clean off counters, clean up a few bathrooms, mop and I’m done. This normally doesn’t exceed an hours time.

Once I’ve completed this, I head straight home and try doing the same thing to mine. Unfortunately, I can never count on being done in an hour. This is something that needs all day to complete and three very unwilling kids to assist me. I think I end up doing most of the cleaning on my own and spend even more time getting onto the kids about sitting around doing nothing. It really does a number on the commotion build up in the house.

By the time the cleaning is done; the day is pretty much wasted (it happens every time). The kids are grumpy because they say I slaved them to death and they’re tired and hungry…

It was totally different today! Let me tell you why…

We had a visitor the other night. Not your typical “human” visitor. We had a beautiful, very obedient Canine visitor. She welcomed us home with her black coat and timid attitude. She was scared but so happy to see us. We didn’t have food for her since we’re not allowed to have pets where we live, but I did get her a bowl of fresh clean water and went to bed.

The next morning (Yesterday)…there she was. Look how beautiful she is:

Yesterday was a very busy day. I placed an ad on Craigslist to let people know I found a dog and that she was waiting for her family to come pick her up. Unfortunately the ad wasn’t confirmed until part way through the evening. So, here I sit, helping a beautiful dog find her way home without a car to take her anywhere, printer ink to print out any flyers and three kids that think their dad’s the worst because he won’t let them keep her (LOL)! Oh yeah- and they have named her Ollie (short for “black” olive- Patience’s favorite snack-?).

Anyways. Last night the girls asked if I could bathe her because it was so, so, so hot outside. I told them that if they cleaned their rooms and helped me with the rest of the house I would do it. In no time flat, the house was (somewhat) in order. I caved in and gave her a bath using nothing but Dawn dish soap and water. It worked really well!

The girls were a little disappointed because they thought they were going to do the washing but I insisted that I did because we didn’t know the dog and I wasn’t sure if she could bite (being scared or something). The great thing was; she didn’t even splash. The poor girl was so scared. I could have done anything I wanted to her. She sat still and waited till we went in the house before she shook off the water. I was pretty impressed.

Once she dried off I took her back to the front which by the way was pretty neat. She never once looked at the couch or tried running upstairs. She simply made her way to the front yard without a detour of any kind.

My neighbor (a beautiful 84 year old woman) gave her a bone, a snack and dog food to eat. By this time, I started to think that she had adopted her too…

The problem I have is that we don’t have the money to take care of a dog. We want one so bad and Ollie is such a great dog, but hub and I know in our hearts that it’s not the best time to have one, but how can I possibly tell the kids without hurting their feelings?

Another thing…I don’t want to call animal control because, well, we all know what will happen there. I’ve called a few animal rescue places and they all say that I have to bring her in. Not having a car is an issue there. So, what should I do? What would you do?

PS- hub did say that “the dog’s” doing a great job at keeping the cats out of our yard (LOL)…what to do? What to do?