Today, like every other morning, I’m out in the dog shed to write. It’s 5 am, and only a few days until Christmas.
But this is Michigan, and it’s cold out . . . very cold in fact! While I tried to look-up the current temperature on my phone for Sand Lake, it told me quite directly that it was 15 degrees out. While 15 degrees is cold, I know that’s not correct.
You see, the dog’s water is frozen. Solid. That tells me that the inside temp in that dog stall is somewhere below 30. Now, this might not seem unusual to most. However, we’ve had several days in the near single digits and the dog’s water dish in that stall has only PARTIALLY frozen, and certainly never frozen after I added the second heater and cranked-up the propane heater Erik installed this fall.
Before you start hollering animal abuse, let me explain. We’ve invested lots of time and money to both insulate and RUN A PROPANE HEATER in the dog room. We even installed double-flapped doggy doors, and have plenty of hay for them to snuggle in.
But yet, we have one set of particularly naughty dogs that insist on ripping-off any doggy door we install. Our dogs are stalled in 3 areas by 2 dogs each. Almost like a mini horse barn with horse stalls . . . and just like the horses, the dogs hang their heads over the doors and stare at you!
I’ve tried everything to keep those two from eating their doggy door. I’ve tried chew toys, tug toys, different materials . . .heck, I’ve even painted Dave’s Insanity hot pepper sauce all over it (undiluted!). This kept them off it for a few hours, but then they decided the fun of ripping a new door off was worth the extreme pain of deadly hot sauce.
My only options now are a metal door, or a pexi glass door. Unfortunately, these types of doors are not easy to get materials for, and being Christmas time, we are slammed with shopping for gifts, not new doggy door materials.
So while the two dogs are freezing with no door cover, I’m also freezing since it’s 40 degrees in here, not 55-60. But, you don’t get anywhere without working for it (although working doesn’t always get you anything either), so I’m out here cold or not, day after day, pounding away at the laptop, trying to make my long-time dream a reality.
Drinking coffee that is now ice-cold, thanks to temps MOST LIKELY below zero outside.