Memphis in the Enchanted Mushroom Forest

You may have noticed that our little puppy Memphis has grown a bit. At just over 80 lbs, she isn’t done yet, but she’s already bigger than most of her playmates.

Before we brought Memphis home, we made some changes to accommodate her. We turned the living room into a library/office space would double as Memphis’ room. She has her kennel in there, and another dog bed in the corner, and a pile of dog toys. We installed dog gates (with little cat doors for the gang) at each of the entrances, and the idea was that when were were away, Memphis would stay in her room. This was fine for some time.

At a certain point, though, Memphis realized that the gates were hardly more than symbolic. She could get over them with little effort, and she did. This led to puppy mischief as you might imagine. She loves nothing more, for instance, than stealing a roll of toilet paper from the bathroom, and chewing it to 5,000 pieces. A few days ago, she redesigned a doormat for us. Short of turning the place into Fort Knox, I think we have to accept that Memphis is going to roam more of the house while we’re away, and puppy proof a few areas, to minimize the devilishly destructive fun a big overgrown goof of a pup can get into.

The gates also form a dinner time separation between Memphis and her food and our pride of house-lions and theirs. Long ago, they achieved détente, but once the cats have stepped away, any left-overs in the bowls form a huge temptation for Memphis. We either keep Memphis outside or in her room when the cat bowls are down.

There is one more consideration with the newfound freedom Memphis is attempting to claim and that is that the cats need to have a safe-area, a Memphis-free zone. They like to hang out with her much of the time, but occasionally she wants to play and they don’t. I’m going to install a cat-door on the door to the family room, the one above the garage. That way, we can close that door, and the cats can still get through and have that room for themselves when we’re at work.