Home Improvement

No time last night to post. Spent the evening building The Containment Field. Last week the puppies graduated from the whelping box to the ex-pen but because of their size they are now able to easily move the pen so that eventually it’s a weird shape and parts of its floor area is not covered by paper. Plus I wanted them off the hardwood and onto the plastic floor covering I have for this particular purpose.

So last night Phil and I took Raimi for a quick blast at the park, stopped at A&W, picked up some dog food and then made our way to Home Depot. Before leaving to go into Home Depot we put the dog food and treats inside the crate in the van to prevent any Raimi investigation/destruction and as we walked away from the van I said to Phil “I hope you weren’t attached to that root beer” (which we’d left in the cup holder) and he laughed like I was kidding. Yes, the dog is loose and the crate is used for storage. Go figure.

I have to say I love those DIY stores. They are a treasure trove of possibility. I get that a lot of women don’t particularly like wandering about The Man Store but I really enjoy looking at the tools, wondering what the heck they’re for, learning about them and being constantly marveled by human innovation. I also like the abundance of DIY ideas that come to me when I’m there. My favorite part of the trip was standing in line behind a man who was buying several large pieces of raw wood and wearing a charcoal pinstripe fingertip length suit jacket and matching pressed suit pants. He must have thought he was pretty casual as there was no tie but the effect was quite impressive. He seemed unconcerned by the sawdust collecting on what was obviously a fitted suit, loaded up his wood under his arm and off he went. Dollars to donuts neither Phil nor the cashier even noticed what this guy was wearing. I tell you it was a treat compared to some of the plumber cracks and construction coveralls so dirty they could stand up themselves and probably build a house for you. Only at The Man Store.

So we pick out our previously determined supplies which included 2x4s (which aren’t actually 2x4 in case you didn’t know – they make them 1½ x 3½ to allow for the addition of a ½“ of drywall thickness – thank you Phil for that little nugget of DIY knowledge) and some screws. That’s all we needed. After some sly negotiation with the van about how everything would fit and determining that Raimi likes root beer and my black leather gloves do not, we were set. But not before Raimi was also re-arranged – anyone else ever try to contain a large bouncy happy Ridgeback and have a gaggle of Asians stare in horror from across the parking lot?

Now to the task. The idea was to take the 2x4s and put them around the outside of the pen thereby keeping it squared and in one spot on the laminate flooring. I had originally determined that I wanted a 4x4 and a 4x8 pen but ultimately we came up with a better solution (I think). We made one 4x8 frame and put the two pens inside it with a section separate for them to use as a “litter” area. It’s clearly defined and I’ll gradually move the paper over there to teach them that is where they need to go for private moments. So they have a 4x6 area that they can play in that will stay relatively clean and a 2x4 area that they use as a bathroom.

Sometimes I wish there was a constant feed of video recording these things we do in life. I can’t imagine what we looked like and I lost track of the number of permutations we came up with for the ex-pens in the 4x8 space. Seriously, who knew it would be so complicated? Phil had cleverly turned a 2x4 on it’s side on the 4’ end so the expen door would open because it’s set 2 inches off the ground and otherwise would not open with a 3½” piece of wood in the way. I had not accounted for the futon which made opening the door a little cramped. So after much discussion and ex-pen wrangling we managed to come up with a solution I can live with. It looks pretty good I must say. You may well ask why wood pieces as substantial as 2x4’s … well, at 8 weeks when each puppy weighs at least 15 pounds times 12 puppies that’s almost 200 pounds of puppy. You do the math. I will also have to reinforce the top of the pen because they will push on that too - but not for a couple weeks at least. For now we’ll just have to wait and see what Phil and I didn’t think of. There’s always something.

So far I’ve deluded myself into thinking it will work a treat. It keeps them reasonably contained, saves the floor from their attention and leaves enough room Raimi to annoy Halo and Halo to empty her roll-a-treat balls.

Pictures to come … no time to download last night.