Episode Transcript
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Julie Jackson (00:00):
Hey, welcome to
happy tales of happy tales, the
(00:05):
podcast where you'll hearstories of the way pubs have
touched our hearts and ourlives. So for the next few
minutes, let everything else goand just listen and smile. I'm
your host, Julie Jackson. Hey,friends, I hope this finds you
doing well. I have an oldie buta goodie for you today. And
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honestly, I was a littlereluctant to pull this story out
so early in the life of mypodcast, because I really feel
like this might be one of mybest dog stories ever. But I
don't know, I just really feltlike this was the one I needed
to share this week. Maybesomeone needs to hear this, I
don't know. But this one goesback about seven years. At the
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time, my little person she was amiddle schooler. I was it was
during my single mom days. Soshout out to all those single
parents because it's hard. Andat the time, among our pack, we
had three blue healers. We hadour twin girls, they were the
oldest, Lillian Eleanor. Theywere about six or seven at the
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time. And then we also hadRoscoe he was our little tripod,
and he was probably about threeor four. So we have since we
lost Roscoe at the end of lastyear, and then we lost Lily a
few months ago. So it's kind ofa bittersweet story. Kind of
crazy to think that Eleanor isthe only one left from the story
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now. But at the time, when theywere still young enough, they
didn't have privileges to beleft just roaming the house
during the day while we weregone. So I had one crate that
was larger. And Lilly andEleanor shared that crate, they
had always been together. Theywere siblings littermates. So
they had always been togetherand they were comfortable in
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that large crate together. Andthen I had a smaller crate that
Roscoe was in their crates weresituated in the corner of the
room, it was not a 90 degreeangle corner because it kind of
opened out into a little bit ofa bay window area. So one was
against like the horizontal walland the other against the
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vertical wall, if you will, andkind of end to end at a little
bit of an angle. So I had workedall day, full day, on my feet
with the public, you know,you're tired, it's the end of
the day, you're ready to gethome, you're trying to figure
out dinner and homework, allthose things that have to
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happen. Plus, my daughter and Ihad decided we were going to go
see a movie that night to thetheater. Big Night Out go see a
movie, I don't remember what wewere going to see. But we were
excited to have a night togetherlittle mother daughter date
night. So I get off work and Irace over to pick her up from
where she went after school andI get there, the poor kid is
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miserably sick. She just shefelt so bad. All she wanted to
do was get home, get in herpajamas, curl up, maybe be
pampered a little bit. Let momtake care of her a little bit
and then go to bed. So we gethome, opening the front door. If
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you have dogs, you probablyunderstand this feeling. But as
soon as you open the door, youthink, ah, that's not right.
Something something's waitingfor me and it's not good. I go
into the bedroom where theircrates are, of course by now.
They hear the door open there.
They know we're in the house andthey are so excited. This is one
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of the beautiful things aboutdogs. Every time you come back.
It's like you're coming homefrom war. They are so excited.
They haven't seen you in years.
They've missed you. They'vesaved all your letters that
cannot wait to reunite with youevery single day. You could go
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to the store for five minutesand come back and this is how it
is. And they are also everydaywe're so excited to get out of
the crates and play with eachother they had missed even
though they're right next toeach other. They every every day
is a celebration. You have tolove that. So they hear us
coming and they are doing allkinds of dancing in their crates
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and just so excited to beemancipated and allowed to run
free and do their dog thing. Iwalk into the bedroom. I don't
know if it was one, two or allof them. But bless their hearts.
They had not felt good that dayeither. And someone or someone's
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had explosive diarrhea,explosive diarrhea. It was all
over the carpet around there.
crates. It was what they we havewire crates, it was splattered
all across the walls behind bothcrates all over the crates. And
needless to say, the pups lookedlike they had been mud
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wrestling. It was everywhere.
And of course, you know thesmell is enough to make you like
your dry heaving. And I'm justthinking, oh my goodness, how am
I even going to navigate this?
So my first challenge is I knowthat they're so excited to get
out of the crates are jumping upand they're jumping on each
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other. And I know that that'sgoing to be a mess. And I'm
trying to think is there a waythat I can get one of them out
of the crate ticket, take herout in the yard get the next one
is there some civilized way thatI can get them from the crate to
the yard so I can start themassive cleanup project and
store? No, there was not therewas not an easy way to do this.
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The second that crate dooropened, they came busting out
like they were being fired outof a cannon. They were so
excited part of theircelebration, of course involved
jumping up and running across mybed. And then out of that room
through the living room throughthe kitchen around all the
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furniture over all thefurniture. Mind you, they look
like little mud wrestlers, theyare covered covered in poop.
There's just you can telleverywhere they went because
they left a trail. All three ofthem flying through the house it
oh my gosh, so I get them outinto the yard. At this point, I
grab a spray bottle and a ragand I'm running around trying to
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just spot clean all these placeswhile it's still fresh, for lack
of a better word. to at leasttry to get that that process
started. Then the crates haveplastic trays in the bottom that
slide out. These are big though.
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Well, at least one of them. Onecrate was a little bit smaller.
But these are big. These are notlike small. You know, I don't
know what the measurements areon this but maybe like three by
five feet, three by four feet.
I'm not sure but but it's likeyou have to tilt them to get
them through the doorway. Andthey're covered and you can use
your imagination. So I've got toget these through the house. I
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get them out into the backyard.
I have all these little poopcovered dogs running around the
backyard. I've got a garden hoseI'm out there trying to spray
off these massive trays. Then Ihave to go in and you know clean
up the of course the walls inthe carpet. But I mentioned
these are wire crates. So theyhave all those little
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intersections of the littlesquares where the horizontal and
the vertical wire meet. And soI'm having to clean all these
little places there is poopeverywhere. I'm burning through
all of my towels quickly tryingto get everything cleaned up. I
finally get all this done. Now Ihave to get the dogs clean. I
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could spray him with a waterhose to kind of get the loose
stuff but at this point, it'sgoing to require scrubbing
because some of the stuff now iscaked on them and I finally
determined my best course ofaction is going to be to pull
them into the shower with me andjust clean them off in the
shower. I don't think that I canreally get them in the tub and
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then with my tub I didn't haveany kind of handheld sprayer or
anything. So I have a handheldsprayer in the shower. Plus that
way I can move around them so Ithink okay, shower it is. So I
get them in the bathroom. And Iyou know I'm getting in the
shower with them. So I undressand I get in the shower, and I
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start pulling them in andscrubbing them and getting them
clean and so at least we've kindof started to get all the filth
off. But as I mentioned earlier,these are blue healers. I don't
know if you know anything aboutBlue healers, but one thing that
you shouldn't be aware of BlueHeelers shed a lot. People are
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often surprised by this becausetheir coats look mostly kind of
slick most of the time they'renot particularly fluffy dogs.
And so I think people assumethat means they're not shattered
but I joke when new healerpeople ask the question, Do do
healer shed how many times ayear do they shed? I always say
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just twice from January to Juneand July to December. It's the
truth. They're, they're alwayslittle furballs that look like
little rodents floating aroundin the corners of our house at
any given time because they shednon stop. So I'm cleaning them
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off. It's also in the spring,they're starting to blow out
their coats. I don't know ifyou've ever seen that before
with dogs that do that, but justhuge chunks of fur will come out
just you know, you can bepetting them and all of a sudden
you have this big, solid clumpufer in your, in your in your
Paul in your hand. As I'mwashing the dogs off in the
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shower, I realized that theshower drain is now clogged, the
shower pan is filling up andstarting to overflow into the
bathroom. turn everything off.
I'm trying to hold the dogs inthere so that I can get out I
have one of those long plasticstick things that has little
spikes on it that you can putdown your drain and it will
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catch all the you know stuffthat's clogging the drain and
help you pull it out. So Igrabbed that saying, well of
course when I go back into getinto the drain, they all just
bust out of the shower door. Andso now of course I have three
wet dogs that are running loosearound the bathroom and the
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bedroom. I'm on my hands andknees with the stick thing.
Sneaking out the shower drain onleash, the most unimaginable
disgusting sludge from itswatery prison. It's just firm
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for and poop and mud. And it'sso disgusting. And I'm just
pulling this out by the clumpthrough clump full pulling it
through the drain. And I'mthinking oh my gosh, I've got to
deal with this now. Now mindyou, I told you, I was showering
with the dogs. I am now on myhands and knees in the bathroom
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floor. D clogging the grill thedrain. If you're a dog person,
you know how dogs greet eachother. And so someone decided at
that moment in time, it would bea great opportunity to come tell
me Hello. So suddenly, I have acold wet dog nose on my butt
nearly hit the ceiling. Totallya miracle that I did not break
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something in that moment. So nowI'm trying to get my heart rate
down, trying to settle down, Ihave a handful of shower sludge
that I have to dispose of. I'mgoing to get rid of that put
that somewhere, I need to startdrying them off. Of course in
the meantime, while I wasdealing with the drain, they ran
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into my closet to do theirshake. So everything in the
closet now was wet, notsaturated. But everything in the
closet is wet. There's justsplatter everywhere. And then
after that they ran to do Idon't know if you've ever seen
where they get really excited.
And they put their nose to theground and they run and they
flip over and they roll on theirback. And it's the most joyful
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thing you've ever seen. Well,they're so excited because they
feel better and they're clean.
And they decided to do thatcelebration on my bed. Yes, the
sheets were already dirty.
Because remember at thebeginning of the story, they ran
with their poopy paws all overthe top of the bed. So the
sheets were getting washedanyway, obviously. Now the
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mattress pad everything soakedbecause they've just been up
there doing their celebrationrole while they're soaking wet.
So I have all of thesedisgusting and wet towels,
saturated towels. I have all ofthe saturated bedding. I just at
this point want to take care ofmy poor child who is probably
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wondering what happened to hermom, she's probably in there.
pousser may have some more likecalling to see if she has
parents anymore. And I just wantto take care of her and go to
bed. I'm so worn out at thispoint. I get all the laundry
collected. I go in, I start aload in the washer to get it
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cleaned. finally have someclothes on I go to check on my
daughter. I'm walking back fromfrom checking on her back into
the bathroom to get more stuffto clean up. Walk past the
laundry room door and see waterpouring under the door. Yes,
yes, the drain in the washer hadclogged too. And it was flooding
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my laundry room. And so now Ihad water running out of the
laundry room and down the hall.
Mind you, most of my towels arein there soaking wet from all
the other stuff that's justoccurred. So I'm just grabbing
anything I have that can absorbwater and mopping the floor. I
did with the help of Googlemanaged to also fix my washing
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machine that night. So I gotthat fixed. I got everything
dried up. I got dressed. And Ithink that's the moment when I
started drinking. I'm justkidding, but still That's where
it ended. So we did finally getto go to bed and get some rest.
But it was a crazy night. So Ikind of wish I had on video,
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although, you know, a lot of itwould have to be blurred out.
But I, as much as that is suchan insane story. And I hope if
there's anyone listening whodoesn't have dogs and you're
thinking, I don't know, maybeI'd like to get a dog. Don't let
this change your mind. Don't letthis dissuade you from getting a
dog because I look back on itnow. And I laugh at that story.
It cracks me up when I thinkabout it. But I will tell you to
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as I mentioned, two of the threepups that were part of those
adventures that night are notwith us anymore. And if I had to
do pooper Palooza every singlenight, for the rest of my life,
but I would get to have themwith me, I would not hesitate. I
would do it every single nightin a heartbeat if I could have
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those sweet pups back with meagain. So I hope y'all enjoyed
that. And if you did, hey, Throwme a bone and go subscribe,
like, follow. Leave me a ratingif you would, that would be
great. If it's a good one, ifyou have some constructive
criticism, please message thatto me because I would love to
hear that too. I would like forthis to get better and be
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something that you look forwardto every week. I also have a
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Smooch your pooch! Thanks,y'all!