Day 2 of Landscapers in Emberville.

The work on the back, in progress.  If you look at the before photos of the back, or you look at the 2020 photos of the shed being deconstructed... this really shows a lot of cleanup!

Two years ago, when I had the fence put in, and the bare dirt rototilled and tried to grow clover, which eventually was all taken over by weeds... well once again Sleeping Beauty's forest is leveled!

Thomas and C____ were the crew today.

Now, as to the effect on Ember, who doesn't like to go poo anywhere other than her back yard, well!  Having workmen and machines was a deterrent.

But when the lawn mowers showed up with more machines, she was scared into poo-ing on the concrete front steps.  I thought we were "home free" at that point.

But no!  Half an hour later, the scenario I had semi-anticipated happened.  With her "potty spots" disrupted, she used the upstairs hallway, where we had a couple of accidents before.

Anyway, I put her back in her safe space so I could clean up after her, and I did a little grown-up paperwork while I was at it:  The Prisoner's license is up for renewal, and I took care of that.

When I brought her out again, we did the dinner time puzzles, even though it wasn't yet 4 p.m.

Now that she wasn't as hungry, we went out on a big girl leash walk, in the harness.  We said bye-bye to the workmen as they were packing up to end their workday.  Who should be out walking same time as us, but Barnaby!

Now Barnaby's "daddy" knows all the good tricks of the neighborhood, including that the neighborhood association tennis courts are not in use, and dogs can use it as a private little off leash running.  Bill invited Ember to join Barnaby for some play on the courts.  

As we were unclipping leashes... Ember squirmed out of her harness!  But since it was unleashed play time, it was OK.  She still had her collar on.  Bill helped me tighten her belly strap, and when it came time to call it quits, he helped me get her back into it, too.  Whew!  That's a whole lot easier as a two person job!

She's in her safe space which I lured her into with our home-filled pup sickle.  And hopefully mentally and physically exercised enough to rest comfy for a while.  I came upstairs and took a shower and it felt soooo good!

Now I'm about to head down again, for eye drops and Ember outing.

Overnight report, Tuesday to Wednesday

We are getting into a different routine, probably a transitional one, and one caused by the GI stress Ember has been having.  Not sure what she got into that originated this, but we have a vet appointment on Thursday and will get an in-person professional opinion (along with her shots, unless they decide shots are not wise because of this issue).  

Tuesday night / Wednesday morning, mom sleeping on couch observed, The Little One does not bark when she needs to go out in the night.  She simply moved toward the front door.  Fortunately I was right there on the couch, asked "do you need to go out?", clipped on the leash and she didn't even make it off the deck... big steaming pile, which mom then cleaned up pretty easily.  Back inside, a little more napping, and then similar "moving around" resulted in another trip out, that produced mostly liquid poo.  Mommy left that to clean up in the daylight, it's on the patio.  With her backyard all disrupted, it's tough being a puppy!

Armed with the observations of the past few days, when the liquid poo showed up, I dosed her again with the kaopectate, and that seemed to get us through to morning.  

Some play and some breakfast later, Ember has decided she's tired, and sacked out on the leather couch.  I'm just about ten feet away as I type, so I can keep an eye on her.

I can't remember if I told the fox story yesterday.  I know I did on Facebook, but I don't think I did in a blog.  This happened on our morning walk, before the workmen arrived at our house.  We were on the way "home", on the far side of the block, when this bold red fox came trotting up the sidewalk from the park, heading in the opposite direction.

I have no photographic evidence of this, because my hands were busy holding the leash, and even if they weren't, my brain was focused on "how do I extricate myself and this innocent puppy from this situation, if needed?"

In any case, what Ember chose to do was sit down and watch the show.  This is something she just does!  See a flag blowing in the wind?  Sit and watch it!  Notice cars in the street?  Sit and watch them go by.  See other dogs in the distance or children with their high voices?  If they are new dogs or people to her?  Sit and watch for a while, maybe check with mom to see is it OK to proceed.

What the fox did was see that a human was on the path, and opt to cross the street and cut through yards.  We could follow the fox's progress by the barking of fenced dogs, heading South from our position.  Ember gets the "good puppy" award of the day!  We continued on home.

That's about it from here for now.  Life is good in Emberville!  Spark on!