Life in the Dog House

We are a four dog household now. Four. I didn't expect to have four. We weren't looking for a fourth. She just happened upon us. How do you turn away a starving baby pup who seems to have just been dumped off on the side of the road and left to die? It's really simple, you don't.

All of our dogs are adopted. There are soooo many dogs that need homes out there, I only wish I had room for them all. Anyone who knows me knows there'd be plenty of love to give each and every one. Juniper, the new baby is the goofball. She's clumsy and adorable and always gives over 100% at everything and anything she tries to do. She's a fighter. Strong, eager-willed and genuine. She works hard to learn all she can from the others.

Olive is also goofy, but more in a workaholic way. She has "jobs" and has a strong sense of duty in protecting the house and the pack. She has to go outside about every two hours or so to run along the fence line and check for any disturbances or intruders. It's her primary "job". She's really, REALLY good at it too. She also guards the house from any and all pizza or prime deliveries. She doesn't care one bit what's in the box, she just makes sure they know they are going to be met with lots of questions should they take one step closer to her territory (she's WAY more bark with no bite but the delivery dudes don't know that). When she's not working, she likes to play ball - a LOT. She's really good at that too and is doing a great job of teaching Juniper the essence and joys of ball-playing.

Echo is next (I'm going from youngest to oldest here) - Echo, sweet Echo. She is the emotional support in the house. She makes sure everyone is always okay and if you are in any way not feeling okay on the inside, she's going to do all she can to fix it. She may even lick you to death but you really end up just laughing. She won't stop until you are laughing - on the inside. It's like she can feel all your feelings and makes sure to keep you happy. In the pack, if the playing gets a little too rough for her liking, she's the first to start running in between everyone to make sure they take some space. She's definitely the lover of the group. This is her "job" and she takes it very seriously for her dog pack as well as her human pack.

Last but definitely not least, is Honey. Honey is also Echo's mom. Honey is soooo sweet and has had a tremendous life. I'm so very thankful that we have been given the opportunity to help her see, know and feel how life is truly supposed to be lived. She started out so afraid of this big wide world and now she loves being the center of it all. She can be demanding about needing pets but we don't mind. She missed out on way too many her first couple of years in life so we go overboard in making up for lost time. Honey is a true "mommy". Whenever we bring home any babies for fostering or take turns bringing home little kittens from work to nurse overnight, she's always right there super excited to meet them and watches over them the entire time they are with us. It doesn't really happen that often, but when it does, she really truly enjoys it. She takes mommy-hood serious but knows the balance of taking time for herself too and makes sure she gets the perfect amount of love and pets each and every day.

Four dogs, where do we put them all? We needed to get organized. The first step was to condense the current kennel situation. It all starts with one piece of wood right? And maybe a few more after that.... cutting, sanding, cutting and more sanding.

....a little more cutting and sanding.....

Eventually, you end up with the first side!

Then the staining starts...staining is so fun!

Boom! Piece one is actually complete!

Then came two.

....and three!

Finally there are four! One for each and every pup.

It's built so they can climb to the top and look out the windows but two out of four are a wee bit shorter than the others (don't tell but it's Honey and Juniper). Thankfully there have been a few years of experience building sets during "tech hours" while the kids were in high school theatre. Stairs are pretty easy now so that was the easiest solution.

Problem solved. Now to just try to patiently wait for the super cool extra long cushion to go across the whole top of it for their comfort. Obviously their town-home castle needs a pillow top.

There you have it, that's how to build custom dog kennels piece by piece for the happiness and enjoyment of each and every pup in the house. Now I'm left wondering, what's the next project? Or perhaps it's time for another adventure hike? (the pups really love those)

#adoptdontshop #rescue #diydogkennels #woodprojects