A Day In The Life Of Rosie.

It was Friday - the day after Thanksgiving. And for the first day in a really really long long long long looooooong time, I didn't do any cooking. Unless you call toasting some rolls, or making turkey sandwiches, or nuking stuff cooking. I was doing my best just trying to chill, but things weren't working too well for me in that department. Both boys went out to play with their little friends, so I got to baby sit Beau. Daughter Hawthorne had homework the entire weekend, so she was working on that. And poor little Giada was bored, plus she's a little ADD to boot. So, Bo-Bo and Giada start roughhousing in the house. (Would it be called roughhousing if the dogs were outside?) Now, BoBo, is an American Bull dog and weighs a 100 or so pounds and is still a puppy. Giada is a lab/shepherd mix and is about 50-60 pounds, and still a puppy. And Dixie is a 10-year old cantankerous Chesapeake Bay Retriever at 70 pounds who isn't going to take any crap off these young whippersnappers. Dixie is growling at the puppies and baring her teeth every time they run by her and is not having fun at all. Every now and then, Giada lets out a shrill yelp even when she's lying down on her pillow. It can be quite startling to me, since I don't care for sudden outbursts like this, although I should be used to them by now, since Daughter Hawthorne does this all the time and the dog probably got it from her. Finally, the dryer buzzer goes off for the sixth time this morning. (Apparently the children don't know how to operate the washers and dryers at their respective homes.) I ask Daughter Hawthorne to take a break from her studies and go take care of the laundry. She jumps up, runs across the room, and up the steps. Bo Bo sees nothing but a moving target and immediately lumbers after her. You can actually feel the floor shaking. Picture a bull in a china shop and you would have a good idea of what I have going on here. When she's halfway up the steps, Beau, chasing after her, jumps onto the couch, which is in front of the railings, his weight causing the couch to slide back about 2 feet, slamming it into the wall. I actually thought he was going to try and climb the railings. I don't want to think what might have happened had Beau actually caught Daughter Hawthorne. I put the puppies out on the deck for a while so they can calm down, but I think the cold air just invigorated them, since they're now running back and forth, knocking over my pots of dirt, then they start play fighting, standing up on their hind legs like bears, chewing on each others faces. Then they started whining to come back inside. They calm down for a little bit, but it's not long before they start back up. Now, the other week or so, I started trying to organize my recipes. I have a big wooden box with different color-coded notebooks and my recipes all in plastic protective sleeves. I had pulled a few of the notebooks out the other day so I could consult for Thanksgiving, and the notebooks were lying on the living room floor. During the puppies' raucous playtime, they stomped on the notebooks left on the floor, the recipes flew out, the sleeves are flying everywhere, and the puppies are slipping and sliding on the plastic sleeves, and now my neatly organized recipe files are not so neat and organized anymore. Having had enough of this, I decide to be a good Nana and take the puppies for a walk down the street. I have both puppies on a leash, and Dixie on no leash since she's well-behaved and minds me. I get aways down the road when I see Middle Hawthorne driving home. He stops to chat with BoBo, and Giada is getting all excited. She's on a long leash and is trotting and prancing all around while I'm chatting with Middle Hawthorne, then suddenly I hear a yelp from Dixie, I look down, and see she's lying on the ground on her side, all four legs lashed together. Giada had hog-tied her with her leash and no cowboy at any rodeo could have done a better job. And it takes me quite some time to release Dixie from her bondage. Middle Hawthorne then zooms off and Bo Bo wants to run after his Daddy. He takes off like a bat out of hell and damn near rips my arm out of the socket. This dog is strong as an ox and he's pulling and pulling to run after Middle Hawthorne. I finally had to let go. Had I not let go, I would have been dragged on my face down the street, eating gravel the entire way. I had no idea that 100-pound dog could haul ass like he did. Now, with Beau 1/4 mile down the road, Giada is acting all crazy. I figure if I just let her go, she'll run on home after Beau. Well, halfway there, she gets distracted (ADD, remember?) by Andy, the 120 pound yellow lab that's tied to the PURPLE jeep in his driveway. She goes over to meet Andy and play and jump all over him and I think I saw the jeep move when Andy pulled on his leash to go after Giada. I finally get Giada back on her leash and look for Dixie. There's a car coming up the street and I'm a bit worried. Also I'm worried about you-know-who next door, cause he's just waiting for a chance to bust me and three dogs running amok down the street would be the perfect opportunity since there are leash laws in this community. Dixie sees the car and thinks it's somebody she knows, so she just follows it into a neighbor's driveway. And I have to go collect her. We finally make it home. And I'm never taking all three dogs for a walk again.