Unlucky Cousin Neely by River Song

When we left you, Pocket said that something happened last week that changed us in a very personal and profound manner.  Cousin Neely came to spend a week with us.

Don’t let his looks fool you.  He is very ill-mannered. He took my place as Daddy’s face licker.  First I licked, then Pocket licked.  When Neely moved in he face licked so much, I became uncomfortable.  Please, get a room.  Human face licking is fun to do but gross to watch.

He also helped himself to my toys whenever he wanted.  When I felt like being reasonable, I understood.  He was brought to our house with none of his favorite toys.  That is because he is Mommy’s Daughter’s dog.  When a pet parent asks a friend to look after their dog, they bring everything the dog needs, when it’s their parents they bring just enough food to make it last, no treats, no toys, and no personal items.  

My parents did respect our boundaries.  Neely was fed in another room, he was taken outside separately, when I had my treat bone he was put in his crate, and he was left home when we went on walks, which was partially respect for us and mostly because Neely is not used to being walked on a leash and would have zipped and zagged us into oncoming traffic and certain doom.

There was something else that Neely brought with him in abundance:  Bad luck

You might also remember that Pocket blogged about our air conditioner not working.  The men came to fix it Wednesday morning.   When the system was installed in 2015, the man said it did not need a filter.  Two years later a new man asked: “did you put a filter in?”  Mommy keeps all the records, and she showed the man the contract and where it said that the installer put in the filter.  The man installed one.  Daddy asked if the lack of a filter damaged the unit.  The man said no.  Ha!

The man got the air conditioner turned on, and it ran for a good six hours before freezing up again.  Two men returned the next morning.  They were in and out of the house, causing us dogs to bark and run up to them.  When they weren’t doing that they were sitting on the grass reading the manual that came with the unit wearing their “we don’t know what is wrong with this thing” face.  After several hours they said they would have to order a part "that didn't sound right."  They left and a short time later the air conditioner gave out one final cold breath.

Neely the Unlucky had brought a lot of heat with him.  It was 90 degrees inside our home when Daddy brought home a small air conditioner to make the living room comfortable.  We were grateful it was there, but our bedroom was still hot.  We haven’t been doing a lot of snuggling this week.

Mommy and Daddy had put Neely’s crate in the front room, which ended up being furthest from the air conditioner, so they moved him to the living room when we went to sleep, which means he was asleep in the coolest room in the house.  I wouldn’t trade the big bed for a cooler room, but I still think we got ripped off.

The people who can’t fix air conditioner told Mom on Friday that they would be fixing the unit Wednesday because they were taking four days off to help them celebrate the Birth of our Country as a place where plumbers can install things wrong, leave you hot, and have a barbecue.  I bet you George Washington didn’t stand for it when his AC went out.

Neely went home Tuesday morning.  When he came to our house, we were told he was a dumb dog had accidents in the house.  While he was with us he never had an accident.  My parents tried to teach his parents that they can’t let Neely graze on his food all day long, and they can’t open the back door and let him run out to do his business and then let him run back in because he doesn’t complete all his business.  All we can do is hope his parents listened.

Wednesday morning the men returned and said this time the problem was a leak.  They promised to come back the next day.  When they did they pronounced that the unit had a leak and would have to be replaced.  Lord knows when that will happen.  

Until then our long, hot summer courtesy of Unlucky Neely will continue.