A Blog from the Storage Room

Posted by Gabe on July 14, 2010 under Family | 13 Comments to Read

It’s 12:35AM.  I am currently in one of the most difficult and awkward situations I have been in for quite some time, both physically and emotionally.  You see I am in my basement.  Not just any part of my basement.  Not the finished part.  Not the part we spent so much time, effort and money on.  No, I’m in a storage area with half the room filled with junk.   The only light I have is the light shining from my Droid’s screen.  I’m sitting on an old outdoor lounge chair mat covered with a blanket.  And I plan to be here all night, awake.  Now you must be thinking I am making this up or exaggerating for effect.  I wish I were.  I haven’t even gotten to the good part yet.  I’m not alone.  Not only am I saddled with the fact that I am writing a blog post fat-fingering my Droid keyboard, but I also have a leash in my left hand.  It’s attached to Pablo, the 110 pound Bernese Mountain Dog we rescued about 8 months ago.  He is panting frantically and has been for the last hour.  You see we recently discovered that he is scared to death of thunderstorms.  Normally they pass through quickly but I checked Intellicast and it looks like we are in for an all-nighter.  So how did we end up here?  Well I was awakened by him trying to crash through my bedroom door.  I was unaware that my wife was already up and had cleaned one round of pee that he left on the landing.  This we have learned is a nervous reaction he suffers from when he gets scared.  It was clear that one of us had to stay up with him.  The flashes of lightning bouncing off the walls were causing him to pace nervously through the house and crash through doors by using his head as a battering ram. It was clear to us that upstairs was not the solution.  We have also learned that sequestering him in a room doesn’t work as he has torn up the carpet and underpadding of our bedroom while trying to break free.  Outside was definitely not an option because of the impending weather.  The garage was a consideration but due to the fact that there were things he could get into that would harm him it was ruled out as well.  So that left the storage room. We felt he had to be supervised so here we are.

It’s now 1:17AM. Since we are in a remote corner of the house away from windows I can say that Pablo is calming down a bit. If I move about he’ll start panting nervously again. I am doing my best to ignore him as I have been told by several sources this is the correct response to be administered so the dog won’t feel that I too am scared.  But it actually appears that if we are spared loud claps of thunder, I may have a shot at getting some sleep at some point.  That’s if I can sleep.  I not only have Pablo to deal with but I have my conscience as well.  You see, we really don’t know what to do with him.  We have been through this several times and the bottom line is that we are ill-equipped to handle him.  We have two other Berners and he fights with our other male Charlie so they must be separated at night and when we are not home.  But we simply don’t have an answer to this problem.  We have given him drugs which knocked him out for a while but then he would have trouble getting up.  We gave him Melatonin (recommended by our vet) earlier which had little if any effect.  Bach Flower remedies haven’t worked.  We have been down this road several times and it always leads to a dead end. I see no other solution than to give him back to his original owner.  Now when we “rescued” him he didn’t come from a bad place.  He came from a breeder who simply wanted to rehome him after a life in the show ring.  He is actually quite accomplished having been in the top five of his breed at Westminster.  He is actually a wonderful dog.  He captures the hearts of all who meet him.  I have told anecdote over anecdote about the crazy things he has done.  But as I write this I wonder if our time with him will soon come to an end.

It’s 1:43AM and the battery on the Droid is doing quite well. Pablo is now fast asleep. When we were all discussing this upstairs I felt we had no choice but to give him back. Now as I sit here typing this journal into my phone I’m wondering if we can’t somehow make this into a room where he can go when the weather gets bad.  We already know he can break out of his crate.  He’ll need something much sturdier. Maybe if I can just sleep on that thought…

2:53AM. Still haven’t been able to sleep.  There are short bursts of relative quiet followed by longer periods of panting.  I am at a loss. I really don’t know what to do with him.  What kind of message does this send my 11-year-old daughter if we give him back?  That’s it’s OK to discard your animals if they become inconvenient?  I’ve always felt disdain for people who get their animals from the shelter only to return them some time later.  I have neighbors who did it twice until they finally settled on the third dog and I remember the resentment I felt towards them.  Now maybe I will have a little more tolerance especially since I did not experience what they did.  And I think about Pablo — poor guy.  I’m sure he’s not happy about this either.  Will he be better off back at the breeder’s with seven other dogs staying in his kennel in the garage all day?  Am I off-loading our problem on someone else?  This is very difficult.  The time that we locked him in our bedroom and left the house for a number of hours was the worst.  Although the weather was beautiful when we left, a thunderstorm moved through the area at some point.  He tried and tried to get out of the room by tearing up the carpet and under-padding next to the door.  There was blood all over the area as he must have also had to deal with the carpet staples somehow.  So this isn’t just about protecting the house.  We also have to keep him safe.

10:30AM.  Sometime after 3AM we both did finally get to sleep.  When I awoke I had no sense of what time it was because the room was still dark.  It was 7:15. The storm was over.  I fed the dogs and went up to the glorious comfort of my own bed.

Creating a Safe Room

Bad things are always at their worst when they are happening.  Now it’s the next day.  Pablo is asleep and I am at the computer in my office.  All is right in the world again.  When I came out of the bedroom I noticed that my wife was crying and she had canceled her plans for the day.  She believed that the only solution we had left was to give him back.  I’m glad I slept with him down there.  It wasn’t so bad.  All we need to do is clean out the junk and put in some kind of kennel which will protect him.  And yes because we are wimps we will have an air mattress next to it to make sure he doesn’t harm himself during nights like the one we just had.  So that’s the project for today.  It looks like at least for now Pablo’s visa has been extended for a while.

So why did I write this?  I did it as it happened because 1) What else was there to do? and 2) It may have been the catharsis I needed to help me get over what we were dealing with.  If you or someone you know has had a similar experience we’d like to know about it.  Any other solutions we haven’t thought of would be welcomed also!!

UPDATE 7/15/10: Thanks so much for everyone who has supported us during this difficult situation.  Since this post can be a potential resource for others I would like to share Rida’s experience with the “Thundershirt”.  We are going to try it as well. Here is her post.  And just FYI last night was blissful – a whole night in my bed with no interruptions!  How we all take things like that for granted…