You’d think I’d have learned by now. Gidget had a grooming appt with our beloved groomer, Abbie, of the small speakeasy grooming shop. So, I hadn’t slept all that well, and yesterday, after quietly plotting how to get Gidget out the door at 7:30 to drop her at Abbie’s, I made a HUGE tactical mistake.
I was ready to drop her, get back, and log into the work shit, when I made a rookie mistake. I can’t believe I did it.
I have a key rack in the kitchen that belonged to the original owners. It’s where I hang dog leash, key rings, etc.
I have two key rings. One has my car key, house key, mailbox key, I forget what else, it’s not huge and jangling but it has more stuff on it. The other is smaller, has house, mailbox, pool key.
I already knew Gidget had figured out the difference between the two, but I fucked up again. I slipped the car key ring off the rack while I held out her harness and called her.
Gidget said “Oh, HELL NO!” and scuttled under the bed.
10 minutes of coaxing ensued, during which I pulled all the storage from under the bed, to give my little drama queen nowhere to hide. DAMN, there was a lot of cat hair and mess under there.
I got flat on the floor, grabbed Gidget by a hind leg and dragged her out. Don’t worry, the floor is smooth and she slid effortlessly and didn’t even put up any fight. This is Gidget Performance Art on grooming days. I told her to cut it out and buckled her into her harness and leash, and loaded her ass into the car for the five minute drive to the groomer.
She shivered and panted and shook all the way there, for the entire FIVE MINUTE trip. I was taking her to her DOOM! MONSTER MOMMY! I hauled her out and carried her into the shop, and she was suddenly far more relaxed.
The groomer’s assistant took her and said, “This performance is all for you. Once you leave, she’s perfectly fine.” I know. She’s a drama queen.
But our drama under the bed was an opportunity. I had hauled all the under bed storage out to get to her, and it was piled on the bed, out of the way. The space under the bed was all dust and hair. Short of taking the bed apart, I didn’t have a way to get a vacuum all the way into that for a long time. It was pretty gross.
Enter Rosie, my new robot vacuum best friend. (I’m an Amazon Associate, so if you buy something through my link, I get a commission.)
While Gidget was at the groomer and all the under bed storage was piled on the bed I unleashed the robot vacuum and closed the bedroom door. Two hours of cleaning ensued while I worked the day job. The under furniture spaces haven’t been that clean in forever.
This is not a fancy super expensive robot, but it does a great job. I don’t use the automatic setting, because I’m not sure I’d want it launching itself on a pre-programmed schedule when I am not home. I do have to do about 10 minutes of prep before I turn Rosie loose: I put up things that I know will obstruct her. Then I can go into my home office and do my day job, while Rosie cleans up a whole lot of random ick.
The only minor flaw I’ve found in this relatively inexpensive vacuum is that it isn’t great about finding its way to the dock when it gets tired. It tends to wander drunkenly, slow and bouncing off furniture. Today it did find it’s own way to the dock. But for sure, if you have hard floors and just want a gadget that will happily spend two hours collecting pet hair, cat litter, dust and such, this is a winner.
Gidget came home before lunch and napped for the rest of the day, recovering from her terrible ordeal. Next month we’ll do it all over again.
That story about Gidget is hilarious! Moses is SO similar – whenever we take him to the vet, groomer, etc. you would think he was going to be tortured! Nice to know there are other dogs that do the same thing.
She IS hilarious! I didn’t have any way to record it, but when I say she “scuttles” she really does – she looks like a cartoon dog. I just wasn’t thinking. I know the process for taking her anywhere is get her in her harness and on her leash FIRST before touching keys, bag, anything else. But it led to cleaning a long-neglected part of my bedroom, so it was a good thing all around.