September '10 Home & Family—Susie Isaacs Column

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The Puppy Night from Hell
W
hen a complete stranger approaches me in a casino and asks me how the puppies are, because I haven’t done a blog update lately, I think it’s time to correct that. A quick update is they weighed 3 lbs. each when I brought them home in mid-May. Today Raise (the white little girl) is now a petite 9 lbs and Mr. Re (Re-Raise—the boy) is weighing in at a strong 10 1/2 lbs.

To tell this story, I have to admit that I was awfully sick after the World Series. I blame it all on the Europeans. They brought foreign germs across the great pond to the Rio and some of them jumped on me. Seems I am not the only one. Many fought what I call the WSOP Crud. On my worse night, when I felt so bad and had no energy, the “kids” Raise and Re-Raise, decided to act up. I knew when it was happening that some day it would be funny, but on that night, there was no laughter, not even a snicker. I was sick, angry, and upset. I just wanted to go to bed, go to sleep and pray to feel better the next day.

My night from puppy hell started when Mr. Re, who has discovered “his voice” decided to have a barking fit. He had never done such a thing. He barks at the pool man, the wind, the rain, and anything that is not normal. I do believe he is going to be a great watch dog. But on this particular night, he just decided to bark and the more I tried to quiet him, the more and louder he barked. There was no wind, no rain, no pool man, no burglars. and absolutely no reason for his continual barking. I had tried nice, I told him how awful I felt and how much I would appreciate it if he would hush, but nothing worked.

After what seemed like 15 minutes of non-stop barking, but was probably only 3 or 4 minutes, I finally put him in the pen and got right in his face and screamed at the top of my lungs, “I can’t take it anymore! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!!” I screamed so loudly that my throat hurt and Raise ran and hid. Mr. Re tucked his tail and backed (away from the crazy woman) into their pet taxi which is in their pen—it serves as sort of an indoor dog house and a safe place for them. They often sleep in it.

Raise and Re-Raise reading their book

He stopped barking but he started crying. I felt terrible. I had never heard him whimper like that—they didn’t cry from the first night. Neither of them have ever cried before and he was puppy crying which started my water works. So then I had a sore throat and my head was getting more and more stopped up. At this point in my illness, the crud was winning. We both cried for a few minutes and then that episode was over.

He decided to be sure that I still loved him so he came to the sofa and tried to jump up. At that time, he made the jump about half the time. This time however, he didn’t make it and grabbed my arm with his left paw and dug in his nails, like a cat hanging on to a curtain. So now my head was stopped up more than ever and I was bleeding from his accidental clawing, but I did not yell. We made up. He has never again had a barking fit.

Prior to this Puppy night from Hell, they had mastered the use of the doggie door. It took Raise (she is the smart one) about five minutes and Mr. Re a couple of days. He isn’t the brightest bulb in the pack. He would see her go out the doggie door, then he would go to the glass backdoor and see her outside. He would then look at me as if to ask, “How did she do that? Would you please open this door so I can go outside with her?” At that point, I would once again show him how the doggie door worked.

Raise at the doggie door

On this particular night, she had been outside for awhile. Things had been calm since our yelling incident so I was playing a one-table satellite on Full Tilt. I was accumulating chips and doing well, but still feeling lousy. I thought I would finish (win) this game, put them in their pen for the night and go to bed early. It was not to be. I got to heads up and heard her come in the doggie door.

When I saw her, I couldn’t believe it. This solid white puppy looked like a skunk in reverse with the black on her underside! Did I mention that she loves to dig? Evidently the sprinklers had been on and there was one area that had turned to mud. This white pup was black and wet on her whole underside, entire legs and face! And I was heads-up in my match! I tried to get her back outside so I could finish my game and then worry about her and the mess she was in. Before I could get to her, she shook! Now I had mud all over the floor, the wall and me. I was determined not to just throw this tournament so I hustled her outside and closed off the doggie door.

Raise exiting the doggie door

After I managed to win the one-table, I stood up so fast, I almost tripped over Mr. Re. I fell, but thankfully landed on the sofa. After almost passing out, I slowly got up. I was sooo sick. Finally I got my wits about me and rather than going to bed early, I was giving Raise a bath. An hour later, she was white and beautiful again, the wall and floor was clean, and I had gotten cleaned up. I believe that she sensed how badly I was feeling and how bad she had been because she was very good during this unplanned bath time.

I put them to bed and headed upstairs. Bette was waiting on me. The senior pooch is the only one allowed upstairs or in my bed (so far). I dropped my clothes in the floor, headed toward bed and stepped in a pile of Bette poop! She never does that! I remembered that during all the excitement, I had forgotten to take her out! My fault—after cleaning up another doggie mess, I fell into bed.

In other news: Congratulations to my friend Tonia from Tampa, FL, who won first place in the High Heels Poker Tour event last Sat. in Jax. Who taught her to play so good? Oh, that’s right—ME!

On another subject: Join me and many more for the 2010 induction of Kathy Liebert, Jennifer Harman, and Billie Brown into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame. It is a dinner and a wonderful ceremony at the Golden Nugget, Friday, Sept. 3. Go to www.lipstour.com for complete details. I promise it will be an evening you will not soon forget.