First overnight visit!

This weekend Dudley and I went on a car ride (he isn’t a fan of the car rides) to my sister’s house which is 7 miles from our home. We did an overnight slumber party at my sister’s house with her husband and the nephews (6 and 10 year olds). It was a good visit and they have plenty of floor cushions for Dudley to chill out on. It was pouring rain the entire time so Mr Dudley wasn’t so keen on going outside to do bathroom business. As a shelter dog, he is quite good at holding it until he has to absolutely go. I wasn’t his favorite person after making him do a few laps around the house in the rain but he did enjoy waking up and eating a few nibbles of bacon when the nephews had breakfast. Somehow the bacon nibbles turned into the boys rubbing bacon grease on their feet so that Dudley would lick it off.

After breakfast, we did my traditional birthday movie and brownies since the boys were so wound up the night before, watching a movie would have been a major feat in patience. It was very sweet to see both of the boys draped over Dudley on the cushions while we watched Beetlejuice! I make the boys sit through classic movies from our childhood. The year before it was Labyrinth 🙂 They are learning how to interact with a dog and read the body language with many reminders from their auntie. The boys were quite lovely about giving Dudley massages but I did have to remind them not to play with a dog’s feet. For the most part, Dudley just hung off the end of the cushion and endured them! We did have a fun discussion about building him a prosthetic leg. Their uncle on their father’s side has a 3d printer and I told them that they should make sketches for him of what they thought a prosthetic leg should look like for Dudley.

It was nice to have a dog who just chilled out in the living room. My old GSD was never able to relax. He would always be up every time I moved and wouldn’t stay in one spot. Dudley knew that the cushion was his spot because I had brought a dog bed and blanket. Poor Dudley did have to witness the youngest nephew doing some dance moves in front of him but he survived. I think the hardest part of the night was when my sister’s husband kept asking me if Dudley was ok. I finally had to tell him that Dudley has resting worried face. He always looks like he is distraught about something!

I was worried that the wood floors and linoleum floors in the kitchen would cause issues for Dudley’s legs, but he did fine. There was one point where he decided to go and sleep in the guest bedroom/computer room to get away from the boys and also be on the carpeted floor. He is a pretty stubborn dog but also very good at figuring out where to hide away from the chaos.