Black Monday at the Circus

So ... I'll admit here in my living room on the internet, that yesterday was a bad day. It wasn't anything in particular really. Sasha had his typical couple of 'time outs' for melting down because he wasn't getting his way ("no, you can't run into the street" and "no, you can't scratch Mommy so much that she bleeds"). Riley the bird didn't try to bite me when I fed him his daily yum-yums. And, I didn't have more to do than normal. But a combination of events pushed me over the edge.

Blake behaved better but still can't figure out what Sasha is. He suspects that he might be a dog or a, worse yet, a cat. His suspicions seem justified since this creature is 1.) always slathered up with greasy stuff, 2.) smells funny 3.) has thick little feet 4.) those feet are perfectly flat, no arches - how could he be a person?? 4.) squeels and howls just like a mad cat and 5.) his scent is always on Blake's toys when he returns from his crate exile. Blake knows that something is just not right with this little creature. He would know for sure if he was four-legged but this two-legged thing has Blake perplexed.

My stress became overwhelming when, while trying to make dinner and herd Sasha, I decided to put a leash on Blake and try to work on the Blake / Sasha relationship. Now Sasha is fascinated with Blake. He wouldn't leave Blake alone while I made Blake sit at my feet in front of the stove where I continued to try to finish dinner. So envision ... me trying to make pasta holding the jowls of an 70 pound, trembling Boxer on a leash sitting on a piece of carpet (Blake would NEVER dream of having his fanny on the cold, uncomfortable floor) while a midget tries to pet Blake and give him kisses on his whiskered face (you should see Sasha's face after he gives Blake a kiss. He wrinkles up his face and sticks out his tongue like "Blucky". Very funny.) Just add some festive music and I swear you'd have a new brand of circus. After telling Sasha for the 50th time to please go and play in the living room and leave Blake alone and to him ignoring that request for the 50th time, I finally had to ban Blake to his crate.

Nathan finally came home (I must admit that the gin and tonics were already poured!) to a nice meal. I was done. We sat to eat while Sasha roamed about begging for ice pieces (yes, that's a new thing. He LOVES ice. Every time he hears the ice maker go off, he runs into the kitchen, grunts and holds his mouth open as wide as possible.). Unfortunately, he went up to Snickers while she was eating and patted her back. She snapped at him. Now in Snickers' defense - she had surgery last week and isn't feeling great. She is normally the sweetest creature on the planet. She had been stepped on, slapped and petted just a bit too hard by the munchkin over the last couple of days so I'm sure she was just done. I was hoping that this would make Sasha just a bit more cautious around the Boxers but it hasn't seemed to impact him in the least.

So the Snickers losing it thing was the final straw in the stress mountain. I will say this and hopefully it doesn't make me sound like a bad mother but - I really need some time away from the munchkin. I don't think it's all that healthy to spend 24X7 with anyone (especially a munchkin) for over a month - no breaks. I'm thinking that statistically it could be the leading cause of insanity.