Darryl arrived back from Mexico last night. I was so glad to see him but that changed within the first half hour he was home. He went off because there was a huge chocolate mess by his easy chair. Now here's the back story.
We'd gotten a bunch of fancy chocolate samples a while back and had them in the fridge to eat whenever. One day a few weeks ago Darryl took one of the baggies filled with candies and left them by his chair. He leaves cans of soda there as well as paper plates. Sometimes you will find bowls with salsa in them behind his chair. I usually wind up picking these things up despite his promises that he will get them "later". Later of course never comes so I'm the one who winds up picking them up.
Earlier yesterday I got home to discover the dogs had managed to get out of the laundry room. This meant that they had decided to poop on the rug. As a matter of fact there were several piles of poop on the rug. I was hungry but I had to wait until I'd picked up all the poop. They never used to do this in the house but now I think it's because they are getting older they can't hold it as long as they used to.
Anyway I'd finished picking up the poop, washed my hands and went upstairs to eat my dinner. Shortly after getting upstairs I smelled poop. Oh No. Well it's not like it's going anywhere. I'll eat and get down and clean it.
After dinner I went downstairs to discover this runny mucus based poop. YUCK!! What fun that was to clean. Oh and did I mention, I have a runny nose, a headache, and my throat hurts?
Ten minutes after I finished cleaning up the last of the poop, Darryl comes home. I kissed him and told him I missed him. He griped that I didn't have anything for him to eat. Honestly I thought he'd already eaten, after all it was after seven. He went on and on complaining how there was nothing for him to eat. I kept asking him what he wanted and offered him one of the frozen dinners we had since we need to get rid of those. Nothing seemed to satisfy him.
Darryl decided to head upstairs and sit on his throne, I mean recliner. Three minutes later he began shouting and carrying on. "Which one of these God D%$@ dogs did this. I'm going to F'ing beat the cr@& out of the F'ers."
Now keep in mind that Darryl doesn't normally have a temper. He has also never hurt any animal that I know of but he was going off and the dogs took off. The problem was that the bag of chocolate was still by his chair, well not really. You see I had tried to put it back in the fridge a few days before he left but he insisted that I leave it there. He said he would get it and besides he felt he would finish off the chocolate. Well honestly I didn't fool with it. Didn't think about it. Yet there, all over the light colored carpet was a huge mess of chocolate, wrappers and a baggie that had been torn apart.
That explained why I'd been cleaning up loose poop. It all made sense. "Well Darryl" I said "Don't get mad at the dogs because you left that chocolate there. This is your fault but don't worry I'll clean it up."
Keep in mind that Darryl acts as though he equates dog hair with nuclear waste. I'm pick it up with my bare hands and then he almost insists that I douse my hands in bleach to get my hands clean.
He was still going off telling me that he'd left the chocolate there for weeks and no one had messed with it. Exactly my point. Now he was going off because a dog, an animal without the ability to reason, had eaten the candy and gotten it all over the carpet.
"Let me get it." I offered. "No" he said "Leave it there. The carpet is ruined. Now I'll have to pay to put new carpet up here."
I immediately checked the internet about how to get chocolate up from the carpet. It said to begin by vacuuming the carpet and then using either a carpet cleaner or dish-washing soap. I hauled out the vacuum which set Darryl off more.
"Leave it alone. I said Leave it alone. Why are you doing this when I told you to leave it alone." I looked him in the eyes and said "You're not the boss of me." "Fine ruin the G&% Damn carpet!"
I set to work on the carpet and as I was working the wet rag on the carpet cleaning solution, Darryl tapped me on the head. "Look Cathy I'm sorry. You didn't deserve that. It's been an awful day. I'm sorry." I stopped what I was doing and looked at him. I forgave him and finished cleaning the mess. Believe it or not the carpet looked fine.
I put Liddy dog outside so he wouldn't poop in the house anymore that night. I put his bed out on the covered porch and figured I'd let him in the next morning. Darryl and I kissed and made up and he told me about how difficult the week had been.
Its easy for people to say what they would do if this whole thing happened to them but it's more important to decide if you will allow forgiveness. This was not a normal pattern of behavior for Darryl. If it was I wouldn't stay or put up with it. I looked upon it as an anomaly and let it go.
This morning I was going to go to Belk. I had a $5 off any purchase for today and it was only valued from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. This meant a trip to Cartersville my nearest Belk store. On my way I stopped at the Starbucks in Cartersville. I had my usual green tea latte and I tried the vanilla scones.
Well before I left I put the dog food out and let big dog out. Surely Liddy dog would be there. NOPE. I checked the side porch. Nope. I checked the back porch. NOPE. It was still dark outside so I thought, maybe he's in the woods out back checking out deer or wild turkey. I let big dog back in and kept a watch for Liddy as I left our street.
Belk always has such nice wedding gifts. I checked some of those out because Darryl's brother Gene is marrying Kim in February. I didn't want to buy anything for them unless Darryl was with me but I definitely looked. So how did I spend my $5?
Well I've always had cold hands and cold feet. You know what they say, cold hands warm heart. My feet are generally chunks of ice during the winter and I have to wear socks to bed or it would freeze Darryl and I. I found a cute pair of footie slippers.
I almost didn't get them because the slippers were marked $10 and I only had $5 worth of coupon. Then I noticed the sign that said 40% off which made them $6. So the slippers only cost me $1plus tax. YIPPEEE!
No we're coming back to the dog. As I was driving home down my street I kept my eyes peeled towards the neighbor's yards because I thought he'd be out in the open. I didn't see him. Then I figured he'd be back on the porch by now. NOPE. Maybe Darryl or his Dad let him in. NOPE NOPE. This was ridiculous. I wanted to cry.
I got ready to walk the neighborhood by foot figuring I'd see him more easily. Just as I got to the end of my driveway I noticed our Canadian neighbors pulling into my driveway. My wayward dog had wandered onto their porch and made himself at home there overnight. I'm not sure why. After all he was laying on a piece of carpet they had but his actual bed was on our covered carpet. I couldn't thank them enough. I was so glad to see Liddy. I kept kissing him as I carried him home.
So all is well. Both dogs are here and now I am wearing my new slippers. Darryl and his Dad? They went to see the new Bond movie. I'm not interested. Besides this gives me a chance to get some stuff done here like laundry.
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