Joust and Chalupa's 3 Day Vacation With Their Pet Sitter (and Daisy Too)!

From Tuesday through Thursday I had the pleasure of staying overnight  with Chalupa the Chihuahua and Joust the Basenji and it was the first time I spent a significant amount of time with them and it was a joy for all concerned. 

Whenever I take care of dogs for short or long periods of time I treat them as if they are part of my little family which means that most often, Daisy comes along for the ride, literally. In the picture above Daisy would not cooperate in showing her face to the camera but nonetheless she and the boys enjoyed riding to a nearby park every day.

 

Another thing they enjoyed was the marrow bones that I brought from home. I have always found that bones are the best pacifiers for dogs. As soon as I dabbed a little bit of peanut butter in each one the boys, 

along with Daisy, were busy and content for hours.

Another pleasure of staying overnight was to have these boys sleeping beside me but the only negative was to hear Joust yelp in pain every morning because of stiffness caused by  Spondylitis), a degenerative condition in one or more joints of the spinal column. Every morning I heard Joust yelp in pain due to stiffness in his joints and when this happened his little brother would lick his neck and head until he was calm. This selfless act by this little guy was so sweet that I had to grab my camera to capture the moment. Can everyone say, "Awwww!"? I confess that I did! 

Because I haven't known these boys for very long I was pleasantly surprised at how well they adapted to having me stay with them and their mom, Anita, felt the same way. 

Here is the e-mail I got from her this morning which only adds to the rewarding feeling I get when I'm an overnight guest: 

"Joust and Chupe seem very happy and I am glad things went well.
The bones with peanut butter in them are fantastic!
Thanks for all the notes in the book---it was fun to read about their week.
I think you and Daisy gave these two dogs a wonderful, interesting and healthy week.
Many thanks!!!
I am looking forward to meeting Daisy.  She is a special dog if she can get Joust, the grumpy one, to play."