The Notorious, Green, Robotic Puppy (No, it’s not Jack)

We painted our dining room on Sunday. Despite our insistence that no help was needed, Leroy insisted and used his natural hair brush to lend a hand. His intrusion might have gone unnoticed, if not for his bright green tail, tushy, and ear. Also, he tried to get the wet paint stick out of our way by relocating it to a nearby rug. Poor, misunderstood Leroy. Jack, as he strives to do in all occasions, remained perfectly clean and also tried to help clean up Mama and Daddy’s feet later.

This is the place I would put pictures if you know, I weren’t too lazy to have taken them and then put them on my computer. All of the button pushing and plugging in…so taxing.

In a related story, yesterday we received the kindest and most politely worded email from our downstairs neighbors regarding a certain someone’s inconveniently scheduled singing sessions. Apparently, Leroy has been terrorizing our poor neighbor and her two babies all day long with crazy barking jags for almost the entire time we’re at work each day. This is of course, making it nearly impossible for her to get the babies to nap at all or for very long. During college, I babysat two little boys for a summer and if someone had been doing something to disrupt or prevent nap time, I would probably be writing this post from jail. I’m just grateful that our neighbors chose the kind email over showing up at our door with wild eyes and guns—which, honestly, I wouldn’t have blamed them for.

Now, Leroy is a dog and dogs bark. He’s part Beagle and that is certainly a breed bred for that. If he wants to bark at the dog park or occasionally while playing or at a masked intruder, I think that’s great. But man, something had to be done about the constant all day barking he’d apparently been enjoying. I did it. I went to Petco last night and bought him this:

That’s right, we are now locking the poor puppy in a crate AND making him get a little buzz (the guy at the store insisted they weren’t shocks, merely static zaps) if he barks. Out of guilt, I also bought him this little diffuser that is supposed to put off calming mama dog pheromone stuff. I also gave him a bone stuffed to its brim with peanut butter and food today.

Update: We received another email from the neighbor this afternoon.

"It's very quiet today, so not sure what you did but Leroy seems content!"