I broke down yesterday. I cried and cried and cried. I got in the car and drove and cried all the way up Skyline Rd. I came to a decision that we need to get Missi some sort of a crate or pen. Each day she has a few hours of very destructive behavior and kongs or exercise don’t seem to curb it. She has trouble with patience. She will do anything for attention and she’s starting to destroy things. She pulled stuffing out of the couch with a kong full of food at her feet. I emailed our trainer for advice. I was too upset to talk to anyone over the phone. I calmed down enough to go to PetCo and stared at all the crates and pens. I don’t want to confine her and I just didn’t feel like a crate or pen was going to solve anything. I got her another kong and a rubber tug toy and went home. Those “exercise” pens are really crappily made anyway. What a waste of money.
Our trainer emailed me back last night and is all for the crate idea as long as we can learn some techniques for her to love the crate, not hate it. He’s going to come over and help us set up a good system for teaching her patience by using the crate. I feel so relieved. Her behavior problems were affecting my work and for the first time I was regretting getting her. I nearly broke down at PetCo when I saw the ferrets. I used to have one and she was the most wonderful pet I’ve ever had. Some day Mississippi will be an even better pet than Telly was. It’s just going to take time, patience, and understanding.
I posted an ad of Craigslist for a crate and got a response almost immediately from a woman who has a very large kennel. We think it’s probably the “giant” size Vari Kennel. It’s going to be so huge but I’d rather do that then put her in a small place. When we are done using it for training, it can be her outside house or something. Sounds like it needs a good cleaning so I’ll be out in the backyard tonight with a scrubber and a 6 pack.
I was so upset yesterday I wanted to send a letter from the april 15th me to the April 5th me. I wanted to tell her to get a cat. I started worrying we would not be able to keep Mississippi and that we had made a mistake. I worried her life was on the line and that I could possibly be making her situation worse, not better by placing her in the wrong home. Will we ever be able to have small children around her? Maybe she should have been placed on a farm or a larger property. But then I thought still, no matter where she would have been placed, she has issues that need to be worked out so she can live with humans, no matter how much space she has. I’m willing to do the work necessary to rehabilitate her. We can use her powers to do good, not evil.