Looking After Henry and Brook For The Day – Not As Easy At It Seemed

Looking After Henry and Brook For The Day – Not As Easy At It Seemed

Henry’s owners had some relatives down for the weekend of the 20th April 2012 and part of their family is an elderly black labrador called Brook.  As they were going to be away for most of the day on Saturday, where it wouldn’t have been much fun for the dogs, they asked asked if I would walk Henry and Brook a couple of times during the day and also to feed them both at around 3.00 p.m. As I had nothing planned, I was happy to help out.  Colin (Henry’s owner) passed the key through the door early on Saturday morning with a little note to say let the dogs back in the kitchen when we got back from the walks.   No problems then!!

When I went to take them out for their first walk at around 11.00 a.m I opened the garage door only to find Brook in there, which was a surprise.  I had never met her, but she let me in and started to wag her tail and seemed extremely pleased to see me.   To the back of the garage is the inner door to the house which when I opened Henry came bounding out.  Once his excitement had subsided I put their leads on and off we went joined by Steve (my hubby) who decided to come for a stroll with us.   Now Brook as I said is an old lady and  walking is a little more serene and far shorter than when I take Henry out, so it was just a gentle stroll down to the local dog  park.

There is a little stream that runs down one side of the park and Brook obviously knew it, and headed straight to it and was keen to get her feet wet.  She paddled the whole way up the length of the stream before she clambered (with a little difficulty) back up the shallow bank to join us.  We carried on with our gentle walk, and both dogs behaved impeccably around the park and then back home to let them both back in.

During the walk, I kept asking the question, why was Brook in the garage and not in the house with Henry?  Both of them are extremely well behaved and get on so well with each other.   I was wondering should I put her back in the house (as the note said) or leave her in the garage?   Was she put in there for a reason?  I really had no idea.  Steve and I had a discussion, but didn’t come to any conclusion.  I did question did Brook open the door from the house to the garage?  to which Steve replied “of course not”.  So when we got back I made the decision to put her back where I had found her, although feeling a little guilty as she did appear to want to go back into the house.  Feeling a bit sorry for her, I decided to put the light on, to make it a bit more homely (although it is fully carpeted, so it would have been quite warm) and left, still mulling over in my head, had I done the right thing.

I went over again about 2.50 p.m to feed them both, and Brook greeted me once again with a wet nose and a waggy tail, when I opened the garage door.  She obviously did not mind being in the garage and seemed quite happy.  Her  bowl complete with her dried food was left by the sink in the garage, alongside a carrier bag with the rest of her dried food and doggy biscuits in, so I put it down for her and she hoovered it up. However I couldn’t find Henry’s.  I had a quick look around, but nothing, so when I opened the inner kitchen door I scanned around the kitchen, hoping to see his bowl, but nothing.   Surely knowing that I was going to feed them, his food and bowl should be somewhere, but I couldn’t find it, so I took the executive decision to pinch some of Brook’s out of the carrier bag to give to Henry.  Now he has a very delicate stomach and only has Oscar dog food, so I was hoping and praying that this was not going to have an adverse effect on him.  He seemed to enjoy it though, so had my fingers crossed.  Once both fed, leads put back on and off we went down to the park again.  As before Brook (very apt name as it turns out) headed straight for the stream and off she went again, clearly loving it.  Henry had a good old play and both headed back panting and hopefully tired.

Henry went back in the kitchen and I left Brook out in the garage, but as I started to walk out of the garage I spied a bowl full of food, on the shelf where I usually pick up Henry’s lead.  What an idiot I felt, his bowl had been left where I SHOULD have seen it, how embarrassing.  I  still thinking about was I supposed ot have left Brook in the garage as if she wasn’t supposed to be in there, what would her owners think?

I did leave a note through the door and said about my dilemma with regard to where I should have left Brook and also apologising about the undetection of Henry’s food and how I had to steal some from Brook’s bag.  It wasn’t long thank goodness, before Colin popped over and had a wry smile on his face.  He told me that Brook should have gone back into the house, but she had a habit of pushing the door open (which apparently doesn’t catch properly on the latch) to go out in the garage and then naturally cannot get back in.  So this poor dog had done that when they all left early in the morning and ended up staying in there for the rest of the day!!!   He said it was totally her fault, and said that if I had put her back in the house, she would have no doubt pushed her way into the garage again, which did make me feel a little better and lifted the guilt factor just a little.   I did however have great delight in relaying this to Steve, after him saying “of course she couldn’t let herself out of the kitchen”.  I should have gone with my feminine intuition and let her back in, as  I knew in my heart that to leave her in the garage was not right.  So what should have been an easy day, turned out to be a bit problematic!!

You can read about more of my dog sitting exploits here

Looking After Henry and Brook For The Day – Not As Easy At It Seemed