Welcome to Weird Wednesdays, hosted by It’s OK to be WEIRD!

My in-laws were just here visiting for Christmas.  They have 2 dogs, large Springer Spaniels – one that is very old, one that is borderline neurotic. They have always brought them whenever they come to see us, in part because the dogs don’t do well when they are left home alone (even when someone comes in to feed them, etc.).  They also bring them because getting someone to watch them is a hassle, and kennels are not good places for the dogs to be since the younger dog is an alpha female (the true meaning of the not-so-nice word often applied to female dogs) and “does not play well with others”.  They had to bring them this time, too, since Spike is getting so old.  The worry was that leaving him home, he might die while someone else was watching the dogs, and that wouldn’t be pleasant for anyone.

Our worry was that Spike wouldn’t be able to make it up and down all the stairs in our house – that it would be hard on him having to get up and down all the time, on top of the cold temperatures.  (He did fall quite a bit on the stairs.)  And we are always concerned when the dogs come because my daughter is allergic to dogs. It’s a constant process of keeping her medicated enough that the hair and dander don’t make her sick, while having to vacuum all the time and not letting her play on the floor or even spend much time in the same space with the dogs.  It always feels like a losing battle, especially since the younger dog, Grace, sheds NON-STOP. The last time she was here it was so cold that the shedding seemed to slow down, but not this time.  And Spike, in his old age, was shedding as much as Grace on this trip.

So, we’ve had dog hair in places where it was never meant to be.

The in-laws left this morning, and so began the process of de-dog-hairing the place. That work has inspired this post, for obvious reasons.

I give you, the Top 10 Places Dog Hair Does NOT Belong:

Luminarias on our stairs

10) UNDER each and every Luminaria we have on our stairs. There is a hairball under every one of them, even though Gram vacuumed 3 or 4 times while they were here…

9)  Under, in and on the Christmas tree skirt. Somehow the dogs managed to lay on my handmade nativity tree skirt even when the tree is literally only 6 inches off the ground and the skirt was completely covered with packages.

8)  On every article of clothing we’ve worn in the last 2+ weeks, especially the black and dark blue ones, including Sweetie’s brand new pair of expensive Land’s End business pants that he wore on Christmas Eve to the special services  He had only been wearing them for 4 hours before they were completely covered in dog hair (and slobber) after sitting down on the living room couch and having the dog rub against him as she walked past him in the kitchen.  It will take a month of laundry for it to even begin to look like I’m making progress on that.

7)  Speaking of EVERY article of clothing, dog hair does NOT belong in my underwear.  I do not sleep with the dogs, not do I allow them to wear my underwear, I do not fold my laundry where they have been, but somehow their hair has ended up in several pairs of our underwear. SERIOUSLY, that’s a bit too much, thank you.

6)  ALL over the couches and futon – and the dogs aren’t even allowed on the furniture, supposedly.  I did catch the big dog, Spike, on my couch one afternoon, and they were both on the futon nearly every day.  The hair is like embedded in the fabric, somehow woven into the cushions now, so it’s terrible to get out…

5)  On my toilet seat.  Both dogs drink out of the toilet… if you don’t raise the seat, you get ‘dribble’ and dog hair on the seat, and HOPEFULLY you see it to wipe it off before you sit down to use the toilet the next time, hopefully… Even if we remember to raise the seat, there is dog hair and slobber all over the toilet bowl, toilet rim, base of the toilet and on the floor heading out the bathroom door… um… yah… yuck.

4)  In my nativities. They accumulate enough dust without adding a layer of dog hair.

3)  On my children’s stuffed animals and other toys – they haven’t been able to put their stuffies down on any surface without collecting hundreds of brown, white or black dog hairs.  So we have to fluff all of their stuffies in the dryer before they can play with them now.

2)  In my sewing machine and case.  (But when they are used as barricades, without my permission, to keep the dogs downstairs and out of the kitchen for mealtimes, and the dogs like to paw them and climb over them, I guess that’s how the hair got there…)

…and speaking of meal times, the number 1 place that dog hair does NOT belong is:

1)  IN MY FOOD!  In my refrigerator, on my plate, in my cup, on my stove, in my dishes, on the towels I dry my hands and dishes with, on my oven mitts, etc… ‘nuf said.

If they were our own pets, we likely wouldn’t even notice… but they aren’t, and we DO notice.  And it’s just not pleasant for us.

I should probably say that we do not have pets primarily because of the allergy issues, and I also should point out that Mom usually works hard to vacuum and try to keep the hair picked up.  But, as I said before, it seems like a losing battle.  This time it seems to have been even more out of control because both dogs were shedding so badly, and was amplified by the fact that it’s so cold outside so they were inside 99% of the time.

Spike and Grace camping in Colorado

We know the dogs can’t help it, and we also know that for now the dogs are part of life when Gram & PawPaw come up to visit. The dogs go everywhere with them right now – camping, traveling, visiting us, etc.  Spike and Grace are part of the family, so you deal with their ‘stuff’, which includes their hair, while they are here.  Dog hair everywhere just isn’t my favorite part of their visit, and something I won’t miss when the dogs are gone.

That and the dog slobber…. but that’s a whole post of its own!

*** Join me in the weirdness, too… I KNOW you’ve encountered SOMETHING weird somewhere this week!! Leave me a comment and tell me all about it!! ***