Overheated by Pocket Dog

River Song and I live very spoiled, privileged lives.  We are well aware that there are dogs forced to sleep outside in the heat, or don’t have a soft bed with humans.  We are lucky to have those things.  We realize how lucky we are when we lose one of them.

Please don’t think we were without a parent.  If that happened, I would become so concerned that I would begin to spin around until I launched myself into space.

But Monday night we lost something important.  We lost our air conditioning.  I was sitting with my Dad after a strenuous day of me overseeing his garden and lawn work.  Daddy is very sensitive.  He can tell when the temperature goes up a single degree and he sensed that our house was no longer at its perfect 72 degrees.

He picked me up.  Normally I am delighted to be picked up.  But I am sensitive too.  I can tell when a human’s emotional temperature was rising, and Daddy’s was about to shatter records.  In the spring of 2015, they had a new HVAC unit installed outside.  It worked without a problem for the summer, but in the winter the heat kept going out when it was very cold and windy.  Men came out and checked, adjusted several things, and the heat continued to go out when it was needed the most.  The next winter the same thing happened.  In March the plumbers said they fixed it by turning a discharge pipe towards the house.  Now it is summer, and the AC isn't working.  This wasn’t going to be good for anyone.

Daddy picked up that little thing he uses to talk into, and he yelled at someone about the unit never working right, and he wanted something done to stop these problems.  He was holding me which made me concerned.  I would be an accomplice to whatever he threatened

A little later the thing made that funny noise.   Daddy talked to someone else.  He had put me down and was calmer (making me look like the cause of his irrational behavior)   Someone would come out to check the AC in the morning.

Then our entire world was turned upside down.  The front door was opened, the porch windows were too, a big fan, standing upright, with a turning head, that reminded me of a Dalek, and whispered “exterminate” at a pitch only I could hear, was brought into the living room.  Then we sat in general hotness.  

River kept getting off the Mommy’s recliner and sitting on the floor, a sure sign that she was overheated.  With the doors and windows open all sorts of sites and sounds filtered into the house to keep us alert.  It wasn’t until well after sundown when the temperature fell into acceptable dog range.  

At bedtime, the Dalek was brought into the bedroom (great, where it could kill us in our sleep) and a tiny Dalek was put in the window.  It was still hot, but we were too exhausted to notice.

By morning the house had cooled off nicely.  The man came to fix the AC and discovered that the unit was not installed correctly, there was no filter,  and the coils had frozen up. They would have to wait for it to melt and come back the next day with filters, so the unit didn’t freeze again.  Daddy could have got upset again, but then something else arrived that morning.  Something that would throw out entire house into disarray.

But you will have to wait for River’s blog next week.

Because this is a CLIFFHANGER