I'm roommateless for the next three weeks. It's weird! Some of it's nice: I can make a frozen banana smoothie for breakfast without worrying that I'm waking anyone up with the blender, and the animals are super-duper cuddly and attention-starved after they've suddenly been home alone all day (evidence: Cymbeline currently curled up and purring in my lap like she hasn't had human contact in months). But mostly it's too quiet and a little lonely, and no fun watching my TV shows by myself, so I'll be glad to have Gen back in early June!
Which, really, isn't the point of all this.
Knowing this absence of Gen's was coming, and knowing that for the fist time since adopting Chloe, I do not work close enough to run home at lunch, we had to figure out a way for her to be okay alone all day long.
Our solution? A homemade patio puppy potty. I got a plastic tray, filled it with gravel, and topped it with sod. I put it together about three weeks ago (changing the sod weekly, of course) and have been diligently spraying it with something that's supposed to make a puppy want to Pee Here. In fact, it might even be called "Pee Here". I then put her smaller crate outside, some toys, and her food and water.
Since setting up the puppy potty, we've been leaving the sliding door open while someone's home, and Chloe's voluntarily spent just about every minute possible outside. That fact is the only thing that makes me okay with leaving her out there while I'm at work. (That, and the fact the weather has been a beautiful and temperate low-70's.)
Up until now, Chloe seems to have been ignoring the puppy potty. She'd sniff it here and there, but spent most of her outdoor time in her crate. Yesterday, though, I came home to this:
Well, I thought, she's enjoying the grass, at least. It's a start!
But then TODAY, I came home to discover she'd actually used it! For its intended purpose! HURRAH! Which means that I feel less guilty about cutting her four daily walks down to three, and leaving her all by her lonesome all day long. I mean, you should see the sad, pleading look she gives me through the sliding glass door every morning as I'm about to go to work!
Now, if we could only get her to be less afraid of humans, we'd have a perfect doggy situation.