Fridays are Golden

Whenever a new house is being built in our neighborhood, folks wander through on a regular basis to see how it looks. We were living in Milwaukee and I flew back and forth on a regular basis to check the progress and talk with the contractor. Since my visits were brief, I did not meet our neighbors until we actually moved in.

I was surprised to learn that the most frequently asked question about the house had to do with the tiled room downstairs with the "sacrificial-altar-looking thing” in the middle of the room. Apparently the room generated a lot of dinner-party conversations all summer as folks speculated about the room (and the weird people who were building the house).


The room was built for the dogs. The "altar" is actually a combination shower and grooming table. A hand-held shower is attached to the front and there is a drain in the center.

Ellie sits patiently while we get everything together for grooming.

The table is just the right height for us to clean ears, brush teeth, trim nails, etc.

We always do Ellie first. Her hair is much thicker and longer, so it takes a bit more time. Fortunately, she is very patient.

Lucy is patient as well, but she invariably hops up on the table before we are ready.

Lucy’s coat is coarser than Ellie’s, and not as thick so grooming goes a little faster with her.

Shelves hold all their supplies close at hand. There is a baby monitor, since the girls sleep in their room and our bedroom is upstairs.

They each have a crate which is left open except at night. During the day Ellie often retreats to her crate for a snooze, especially if the house is noisy. Lucy rarely goes to her crate except for sleeping at night.

They have a clock so they will know when it’s time for dinner. And the toy box is just outside their room. I have no clue why we have so many toys when all they seem to want to play with are tennis balls.

The pictures in the room are drawings of our former dogs, both Springer Spaniels.

This is Penny, our second dog, who shared our home for 15 years.

Before Penny, we had Tipsy, our first dog whom we got before we had children. She lived 16 years.

The girl’s room has phone and satellite connections, but I refuse to get either of them for the dogs.

Many people ask us how we manage two large shedding dogs. First, they fit our lifestyle very well. We are retired and healthy. We are happy to take them on long walks and take them on trails to run off-leash. We brush them every day. Three times a week we use a marvelous deshedding tool called the FURminator ®

I vacuum often, and thank heaven daily for Swiffer®