Petal's getting bigger and bigger everyday! She's going to be seven months old next month! Time's flying! And because she's growing like a weed, we had to get her a new kennel. Or, as I've been calling it, her "Big girl bed".
Me and my Mom searched through Amazon.com and found the coolest cage. It's a Pawhut 42" metal, folding crate with divider. I think the fact that it folds is the best feature! No assembly whatsoever. You simply unfold it, lock the front and back securely into place, and viola! The crate also has, not one, but three doors. One on the front, one on the side, and one on the top (perfect for dropping a treat or toy inside without your dog barging out).
It's a pretty big cage, measuring at 42" long, 28" wide, and 31" high. I'm not sure how big Petal will grow to be, so I used Lassie's measurements. Right now she has too much room in there, so I stuck the divider in there.
She's not too fond of it at the moment. I think she misses her old bed, which was a plastic, cargo kennel. It was nice and roomy when she was little, but now that she's bigger it's not so roomy anymore.
Last night she cried quite a bit, but settled down when I covered her crate with a blanket (not dark enough, perhaps?), but then she woke up early in the morning (she usually likes to sleep in— I know, I got lucky) crying. So I put the divider in there this afternoon, hopefully she'll feel more secure with it being a little less spacious and a little more cozy. We'll see how she does.
And I thought this was pretty funny, so I'll share it with you.
This morning my Mom and I were in the kitchen talking and the dogs were hanging out in the family room. We keep a gate up in the kitchen doorway to keep the dogs out, and thus out of the trash can. So there's no way in, unless you're one of the cats and can leap over the gate, or go through the lame hole in the wall. It's not really a hole, it's more like a glassless window with a splendidly pointless view of the family room from the kitchen, and a kitchen view from the family room. On the kitchen's side of the window-hole, the sink resides beneath it— which is why only the cats can get through it. It takes a graceful, and stealthy, cat to balance along the sink's edges to get to the counter and then onto the floor without seriously injuring themselves. No clumsy puppy of mine could ever achieve this without breaking every dish in sight and taking a trip to the vet's office.
On the family room's side of this wanna-be window a small table, with folded blankets on top, sits underneath it. Petal has recently discovered that if she puts her front paws on the blankets on that table, she can see through into the kitchen, and snatch things left on the window's ledge. Today, however, whilst excited to be up and out of bed, she took a spontaneous leap through the air while approaching the table, and ended up on top of it. Back feet on the table, front feet on the ledge of the window. I was in shock— I think I even gasped—, not expecting her to actually make it. I thought for sure she'd end up falling on the floor. And apparently she had been expecting the same thing, because as she looked around and realized what she had done, her ears went flat against her head, and she started shaking; afraid to get down or even move at all.
Only a collie can achieve such a naughty act on accident and immediately become fearful of it. If that had been Ella, the lab mix, she would've leapt on through— crashing through the sink and onto the floor. Then she'd look around, as she'd wag her tail, as if to say "Did you see what I just did?!"
But not Petal. She hadn't meant to do that and instead of taking advantage of the moment, she froze in her spot and waited for me to come show her how to get back down to the safety of the family room floor.
Silly dog.
