Tarred and Feathered

LLB had a job this weekend - to walk a dog that belongs to a woman up the street. This woman who holds the dog's bowl while he eats... This is what you call a crazy dog lady, people.

LLB went over on Thursday and got the instructions.
They were simple: Walk the dog - keep him in the grass because the new stuff they put on the street will hurt his feet (Huh?? whatever... we can do that...), keep the dog company for an hour, brush him and put him in the house.
On Saturday we went up to her house with Zeb in tow. While she was retrieving the dog, a truck went by. We didn't think much of it until we got down to the street and started walking in the grass. They had sprayed new TAR along the edge of the road and into the grass. It looked like muddy water and we'd had a lot of rain - so it took us a minute to figure out why we were messy and the dogs were a disaster!!

We moved to the other side of the street, and continued our walk. The tar was there and there was nothing we could do, but keep going. We decided to bring both dogs back to our house so we could clean up our charge. He is a tan and white corgi whose owner is neurotic about his appearance... of course she is.

He's a grossly overweight 18 month old dog who got tar on his paws and his belly because it drags when he walks. We got most of the tar off of this poor soul and it took some work! We let him play with Zeb and run around for a hour. Then we brought him home and brushed him out good. He was sooo tired he could barely stand.

LLB and I thought she had done a very good job of caring for this dog. She called the owner to tell her that we had gotten into some tar, but that we cleaned him up. She didn't want her to be shocked when she got home. We felt that she was a responsible dog sitter.

Alas, when she went to get him for his walk yesterday, there was a note. It seems that the lady took the dog with her. LLB was so upset. She feels like the lady didn't trust her to walk and care for the dog. We assured LLB that she did the best she could with the situation. BTW: Zeb is a disaster. He is still sporting WAY more tar than the other dog. We worked harder to get it off of our charge than our own dog... It will wear off. It wore off before and it will wear off again. It is what it is.

So - LLB left her a note on her door. LLB asked her exactly what she had done wrong. We've heard nothing.

Will we ever watch that dog again? Umm...no thank you. We love the dog - he's a blast! The woman,though, is WAY too high maintenance.