the options...

i am glad everyone is thinking about the issue with odie. i like that folks are trying to think of a solution. and i really liked jamie's comment about adding another gate, just adds another gate and the gates are not really the issue.

i could divide up every single room into 2 or 4 or 6 sections and build wire gated walls in between and all we have accomplished is adding more barriers and gates...not only turning their home into a series of cages but just adding more gates for animals to accidently slip thru.

odie and the other animals are perfectly safe if we are careful going in and out of the doors and the gates.
we don't need to stick anyone in wired off cages..might as well just build them all kennels in the back yard and let me have my house back. it would be way easier to clean...just hose the kennels down once a day. it would be way easier to keep everyone safe..just pop them each into a perfectly secure wire kennel and all problems are immediately solved.

but is that how we want them to live? is that how i want to live..in a house full of wire cages with some animal sitting there...doing what?
waiting? isolated and alone?..i think that is a nice way for them to live the rest of their lives?? odie is only 5..he wants to spend the rest of his life entombed by wire in a 6x8 foot laundry room?

no.

i want all of us to be careful. to be respectful of the needs of odie and the other animals here. he is content in the kitchen..he feels comfortable in there...he feels like that is his space in his odd family home.

we all have to learn to be cautious when we move from room to room here, to pay attention and to keep the kitchen free of other dogs. we also need to learn how to keep it calm here. how not to wind up the animals with our rushing about. we need to use thoughtful care consideration when we are feeding treats or preparing their canned food.

saints actually works pretty well because for 18 hours a day or more there are not a ton of people here. left to their own devices without us stimulating and winding them up...they are all pretty calm. that is why i have the hours when no one is allowed here....it is peaceful and quiet when no one is around.

the real issue is us.... it is about us. we are focused on what we are doing, on where we are going, on when we want to come and go here. we had a fight this morning between sam and puff (no one was hurt.) the house staff decided they were ready for the field run while sam and leah were still out for their morning run. no one was thinking about what was going on around them, that sam and leah were down at the barn like they are every morning first thing...they were just ready to move on to the next thing on their list which was the dogs run and consequently...puff ran smack into sam.

at some point we all have to realize that we humans are not the sole inhabitants on the island of saints...there are animals everywhere...hopefully in their proper areas, hopefully put away before we move or allow another individual or group into their space.

the issue is really not odie or puff or sam...it is not that we need to build yet another freaking barrier or wire gate. it is that we are thoughtless and careless at times and not paying attention to what is happening around us..to what could happn around us if we are not careful.

it happens to me occasionally too...last week, puff met up with manny at the back mp door..i didn't bother to pull the xpen over to block them off from each other.
so when i say we...i do mean we...and i include all of us in this.

we are each 100% responsible for whatever we do or don't do.

but the other issue is this...when we screw up...someone might get hurt. someone may become a victim of our mistakes..it could be charm and his injured eye..it could be odie if he for safety sakes had to be nuked.

we need to really think hard about this...all of us do.