Oy.

Since August 15th, my life has been nothing but dogs.

Now, while this sounds highly enjoyable and awesome - because I mean, come on: PUPPIES - it is actually (perhaps surprisingly) mindnumbing as all hell.

Seriously. Imagine yourself for 16 hours a day with nothing to do but supervise puppies as they play, making sure they don't kill or maim each other; chew power cords, furniture, or expensive equipment; pee in the house; venture somewhere they can become lost, damaged, or damage something else; or do anything else detrimental to either home, puppy, or goodwill, all while they bark, whine, growl, howl, and a host of other virtually non-stop loud noises.

I need human interaction.

Don't get me wrong - I love my dogs. They rule. But I can't wait for Napoleon to get out of the puppy phase which necessitates constant supervision. When we first got him, he was one angry little puppy. Understandable for a little dog who was ripped from his mother and littermates as soon as his eyes opened, attempted to be raised at this too early age by a single guy who gave up and relinquished him to the pound at 4 weeks of age, lived his days in a newspaper-lined steel cage at the shelter and his nights at someone's house with 3 full grown dogs, one of which did NOT like him, and then at 8 weeks of age exactly, found himself yet again in another new environment.

Lemme tell you, those first 3 days were not awesome. He bit and snapped and lunged and growled every single time I got near him. He was pretty deeply distrustful of everyone and chose to deal with every situation by suddenly dashing at it in an attempt to tackle and devour it, if at all possible. And then he got sick on top of it, and I had to keep him and Razzle separated so that Razzle wouldn't also get it, and that lasted 2 or 3 days before I had a meltdown and gave up on life. I wish I were kidding, but I'm not. That was the hardest frigging week of my entire life. If I'd owned a gun, I don't think I'd be sitting here, I was that ready to chuck it all in. Ty didn't seem to think there was any real difficulty involved in any of it, and was absolutely no help at all. So I gave up and let both dogs play together. And Razzle got sick. And I told Ty I was calling the shelter and giving Napoleon back. And he said no, I wasn't. And there was a huge fight. And then Ty ended up having to take care of both dogs for a few hours one day and figured out that holy shit, yes, they were a LOT of frigging work. So the work started to be more equitably shared. I still have to do the lion's share of it, but every once in a while, I tell Ty I have to go run errands, and he ends up having to care for them for an hour or two. So at least a day or two a week, I escape, but dude. I haven't been able to get anything done that needs doing (showers, laundry, taxes, job search, writing, web design, or jewelry making for the holiday shopping season), and I really, really, REALLY can't wait for Napoleon to reach the stage where he can be trusted to do his business outside and to not destroy anything or chew on power cords.

I love both dogs very much, but I'm still sayin'.

Aside from puppies, I really haven't got much of anything. As you might imagine, Sarah Palin sends me into fits almost daily. That woman is insanely ill-equipped to be Vice President, let alone President when John McCain kicks over suddenly in office one day. At first I thought her nomination was a joke. Then I figured out McCain was going for the morons in PUMA and other idiots who will vote for Palin just because she's a woman and therefore MUST be good for women, which is sadly about as far from the truth as you can get. I posted some notes about her to Facebook which I will probably cheat and repost here, because I don't want to have to write them all over again. Whatever the reason he named her to the ticket, she's about the most appalling choice he could have made. Or at least the most appalling that leaps to mind. Except for maybe Mitt Romney, who actually has a brain and is probably slightly more evil than Sarah Palin, on accounta how she's just flat out vile and doesn't have the brains to hide it, but he's a sneaky snake oil salesman who has figured out you gotta sweet-talk the people before you bend 'em over a barrel and steal their most precious possessions while you're pounding away at 'em. She's too overtly vile and toxic for you to ever have any doubts as to her true intentions, although I have to say, every week, I learn something even more foul about her that makes me hate her even more. She's one of the ugliest women I've ever seen in my life now, I've found out so much ugly crap about her.

But anyway. Those views are no surprise to anyone here, I'm sure. And Napoleon is going to wake up from his nap any second now, so if I'm going to get to savor the big "Tear and Share" pack of peanut M&M's and the nice, cold Diet Coke I have in the fridge, now is the time to do it.

Peace out,
katie