The Dog Door

We have a dog and by logical deduction you must realize that we have a dog door.  Our dog is in the category of medium sized dogs, not large and not small either.  My 15 month old son has been toying with this door for months now, on the evening of my birthday he finally made it through.  We discovered this as we were eating cake and he started banging on the door…from the outside. 

Our yard is completely fenced in, after all the dog is allowed free access to the back yard.  The yard, however, is not really a yard in the sense that there is grass and plants and happy looking.  We have no grass, only weeds…we have plants, in the beds along the fence line…we have trees, fruit trees that are producing small fruits that fall upon the ground that are easily picked up by small hands.  I did mention the dog that poops outside…on the concrete…also easily picked up by little hands.  Did I also mention that my son puts EVERYTHING in his mouth?  Yeah, now you are beginning to understand my distress at the thought that he can go freely out into the back yard!  I was doing dishes one evening after dinner and Gramma-Chele took the boy out into the back, and before she closed the screen I told her to “make sure he doesn’t eat any poop”, she turned around with the most disgusted look on her face and said “will he do that?!”.   I have already dealt with rocks in the mouth, little plums in the mouth, chalk in the mouth, and toys in the mouth…I am not ready to fish poop out of his mouth!  He already tries to eat the dog’s food, I am just not ready for the day that he puts a poop log in his mouth.

With this new discovery that he has made, I have discovered that what was a blessing 6 months ago is now the bane of my existence.  Here is my dilemma:  1^st, I can’t get rid of the dog door as the dog uses it in the middle of the night.  2^nd, my son is constantly climbing out the dog door, which Barkley just loves and encourages, but is causing me large amounts of distress.  This morning we also discovered that he can now open and close the screen door…so really there is no way in keeping him in, short of putting the cover on the dog door and closing the glass door.  He usually goes out with grandpa in the morning while he waters…of course preparations have to be made before this can happen, like shoes and sweeping the poop into the weed area.  My mother tells me that I worry too much…I have thought about this, and my conclusion is that I don’t worry enough!  I am pretty sure that the back yard is a death trap and it is out to eat my son!  I don’t worry about Casey as I have had a devil of a time getting her to eat food, I know she won’t put any ick in her mouth.  She comes to me when her hands are dirty and insists that I wash them, she has done this since she could walk.

So there it is, my next great stressor…here’s to dog doors and nervous breakdowns!