Dogs are easy, right. Every kid ought to have a dog so they can grow up properly. I had to be a good dad and get the kids a dog, right? Oh, we got a dog alright. It’s been a long time since I had a dog. When I was a kid, we had a couple of animals but my responsibilities related to the animals were minimal…I was a kid. Even, as an adult, I foolishly believed that my responsibilities from when I had dogs as a kid were the real extent of pet ownership. I have since then been properly educated…
Over the summer, I dug postholes all about my yard to put up a fence to allow Ginny to have space to play and do what dogs do (which I have since found out is poop). It was a big effort as I hand dug the holes and mixed concrete to hold the posts. It looks great and seems to finally have been made Ginny-proof. I next had to build Ginny a proper dog house. I had all sorts of lumber scraps and stuff laying around so Ginny has a first-class house that didn’t really cost me anything.
I have not weighed the house but I suspect it weighs as much as my car. Emily and I put insulation in the walls and ceiling and installed white siding so it will be the same color as our house. Ginny doesn’t like to stay inside all day so I figured I needed to give her a heat source in order to be safe this winter. We installed an outdoor light in the ceiling of her house and it keeps the space pretty nice for her. I measured the outside temperature at 29 the other day. Inside, after letting the bulb warm the space, the floor of her house was 44 and the ceiling area was much warmer.
Of course, for the light to work, I needed an outlet on the outside of the house. The one and only outlet was on the other side of the house so I had to drill a hole in my brick and run power from the laundry room through the wall. Without considering dog logic, I simply plugged an extension cord into the new plug and ran it to the light fixture in the ceiling of the doghouse. The first day we left her alone with her new place, she decided to take a bite out of the pretty orange cord running into her house. She got a jolt out of it I am sure. It wasn’t enough to hurt her badly…she only had a small spot on her lip. I wasn’t prepared to sacrifice another cord to see whether she learned her lesson though.
Being one to over-engineer whenever possible, I built an armoured cable to power her light. I haven’t seen evidence of her trying her luck on the new cord, but I am pretty sure it is bite-proof and will keep her safe and warm.
I don’t know about you, but this whole dog ownership thing seems pretty easy, right?
I noticed that you have this posted/tagged under ‘tinkering’. I think you’ve moved WAY beyond tinkering! 🙂
Ginny is one lucky dog!
That’s why I stick with cats – the “No Frills” pet. Shoot, I even trained mine to use the human toilet (no stinky litter box!)
That’s the joy of being a dog owner! 🙂
You are a great owner by providing her with a great shelter with heat! Maybe when you get in trouble with Emily, Ginny will share her heated doghouse with you. LOL!
Evil Twins Wife…love the idea of not litter. How in the world did you train the cat….Does she flush too?
My, that new cord is just screaming ‘chew toy’. 😉 Hope it turns out to be indestructable 🙂
You’re a good man Warren.
Now you need to install a ceiling fan to move that warm air around, or maybe a heated dog bed. Maybe you should just go all the way and install a basement under it and install a furnace/central air system and plumbing so Evil Twin’s Wife can come over and potty train your dog.
We made a dog house for our dog and she refused to go inside of it. It was even painted with shutters and everything. Our Chiots is too much of a softie – she prefers to sleep inside covered up with a blanket.
Glad to hear the dog is doing well at the home among the hills.
You and CapriLis are old softies! She has boxes on her porch for her outside cats. She puts heating pads in there.
God bless you both.
Ginny is a pretty good dog and I will be super surprised if she can bite through that new cable. It’s good metal and pretty tough. She hasn’t touched it again thankfully! She still likes to be outside a lot but a little less than when it was warmer. Maybe she’s smarter than we thought!