Without energetic pups!

We recently had our roof replaced. One of the stipulations of the contract was to keep all pets and children indoors and away from the workers.

Keeping our children out of harms way was the easy part--they were at school for the majority of the time frame the roofers ripped off the old shingles and installed the new roof.

However, the pups were a different challenge. Red is a curious dog, she loves to explore counter tops and tables. She steals socks, whole tissue boxes, head sets, ace bandages, baggies of food or anything else she deems interesting. For instance, a terra cotta flower pot one of the kids had decorated to look like a bunny. Red's curiosity got the better of her and she snagged it off the counter. She grabbed the fuzzy-ball-tail and it smashed into several pieces.

The loud noises that the roofers were making drew Red to the windows in the kitchen. She tried to peak under the pull shades covering the windows. I raised them slightly giving her able view of the backyard. Red bark a few times at the workers. Probably telling them, "Hey, I'm in here and I'm watching you." Maeve on the other hand headed to her kennel with ball in mouth and curled up. She was content to just hang in there.

After scolding the workers, Red decided to pester Maeve. Into the Maeve's kennel Red lumbered in and started to poke at Maeve with her snout. Maeve got up and came out. They wrestled over the ball some, then Maeve decided she had enough but this time headed into Red's kennel.

Then a most unusual thing occurred (ok, in my humble opinion)... Red gently pushed her own kennel door shut with her nose, while Maeve was still in the kennel. I began to laugh hysterically until my ribs hurt. Maeve didn't take kindly to her sister shutting her in a kennel, she jumped and came out ready for another round of wrestling on the kitchen floor.

Just watching them have fun made me forget about the constant banging for a few moments...

without ripping lattice from the deck

The challenge how much of the wooden lattice skirt around our deck
could our pups rip off from the deck before we have to replace it...?

Amazingly for the amount of slats we took from them
over the last seven months you'd have thought there was two layers!

So before they attempted to munch much more I started looking
for a non-wooden alternative. I found something called rabbit wire.
Unlike it's cousin chicken wire, rabbit is not too flexible;
in fact it's more ridged and retains it's memory.

I picked up two rolls just in time on Saturday,
because Sunday morning somehow both our girls...
Red (60 lbs) and Maeve (70 lbs),
found themselves stuck under the deck with no way out.

So I had to rip more lattice off to allow them to come to me.

As soon as I had them out, I checked them over like old mother hen
making sure they weren't hurt... then I scolded them.
I brought them inside so I could prepare for the new challenge at hand...
Wrapping our deck skirt area with rabbit wire.

I began to gather my tools and the new rabbit wire rolls.
The first side I tackled had no bushes or stairs near it.
It was by far, the easiest of the three I covered.
The second side had two bushes at either corner and a 10' wooden beam to move.
I was still pumped and making progress.

I let the girls out to see what they would do with the new obstruction.
They though had other plans.
First Red tried to casually walk off with the other roll of rabbit wire.
When that didn't work, she ran up on the deck
and tried to snatch the box of special U-shaped nails...
specially made for attaching wire to fence posts.
So she spoiled it for her and her sister, and back they went into the house.

The third and final side to be tackled presented to a formidable foe!
It had a bush next to the stairs at one end.
If it weren't for my youngest son, some of the task might not have been finished.
He crawled under the bush and help move dirt,
a extremely large log and the old lattice.

Once it was out, he helped me place back in an alternate to the rabbit wire...
as I had ran out (*GASP* the horror) and was stuck to put something, anything
there to cover a hold large enough for me to fit under the deck.

We finished though and what a rush of emotion over completing the task at hand!!!

Now what else can I fix...