The dog days of summer!

I volunteered to dog sit for a week...that's right...the heat must be affecting my brain because I thought it would actually be fun. We have some acquaintances in town who think we are perfect for dog-sitting their 8 year old golden retriever. This is how it has gone so far. Our family was downstairs watching a movie and eating pizza (weekly tradition) when the doorbell rang. In ran Jake the dog--slobbering and barking everywhere (waking up Kes--who did not return to bed until 10 that night!) Next, he went downstairs and barked at our cat Mouse who literally jumped into (and got tangled in) the blinds. These are the cheapie plastic blinds, so they really can't handle the weight of a cat--hence we now have mangled blinds. After terrorizing the cat, he discovered the degu, Max-and literally was digging at the cage trying to get at it. Max responded like a degu on crack and was running blindly all over it's cage at moch 10. All other pets terrorized--he ran upstairs to mark his territory. I went up to our kitchen about a half hour later and stepped in a puddle. Hun. That's funny. I wondered who spilled this water--as I bent down to wipe it up--the olfactories kicked in and I realized I wasn't wiping up water! GRrrrrr! Next day was Sunday, and we kicked the dog out while we where at church. Big mistake. Came home to find our screen door shredded. Apparently this dog is NOT an inside dog. Oh, did I mention that he is terrified of thunder and has to be put in a room downstairs with no windows when a storm starts. (Of course we had thunderstorms all day yesterday) Might I also add this lovely little side note, that on one of his forays outside to use the facilities (my flowers), he chased the cat up the tree who was then terrified to come down because she thought a dog might be lurking below. So we where outside yesterday in torrential rain, with a ladder trying to coax the cat down--why didn't I just leave it? Because I had a seven year old boy crying because he was worried his cat might get hit by lightning (never mind his parents who where standing on a tall metal ladder!) The cat ran inside and has been living in our box spring ever since. Today, the only major thing was Kes found it mauling her dora doll and was very traumatized! She did take matters into her own hands and ran over pulled the doll out of the dogs mouth banged Jake on the nose with the same said doll and said, "no no! Jake! That's my Dora!" We are still watching it until next Sunday...except here is our loophole. When they dropped Jake off, the people said that if we had plans next weekend, they found another place we could take it. I've been bugging Levi to go on an overnight camping trip...now he is considering it...simply to get rid of the dog. :)