Stanley's Hurt Leg Gave Us Freedom

OK, the first thing I have to tell you is that Stanley hurted his leg on Friday.  Stanley's tracts along his knee are not deep enough and his knee pops out very easily.  The dogtur said this was not worth fixing since he may never have a bad problem but it did make him prone to damaging his ACL.  So our pawrents are always careful.  When Stanley pops it out all he has to do is straighten his leg and it goes back in place.  So, now I have to tell you this other thing . . .

Our house is a ranch level house with a full sunlit basement.  And as you might already know, our backyard is mostly a hillside, steep slope.  So that means that the distance from our back door to the ground is . . . 17 steps!  Yes, to go outside, me and Stanley go out the kitchen nook door and have to go down 17 steps (from the deck) to get to the yard. 

When we were little puppies, mom and dad tried to teach us to go outside using the bottom door.  To get  to that door we just have to go down the stairs to the basement (it's finished) and then out the door from dad's dog house.  Oh yeah, dad has a dog house.  Mom calls it a junk room and dad calls it his storeroom so they settled on calling it his dog house.  There's even a sign on it.

OK, now back to the story.  On Friday, me and Stanley saw an intruder dog in the front yard so we went berserk told dad we needed to go out to bark a little bit.  So dad opened the door for us and we flew like we were being chased by zombies cautiously went down the 17 steps so we could yell at that dog.  About 3/4 of the way down Stanley hurted his leg.  No one knows if he hurted it then or if that was just when he realized it.  Anyway, he was hurting pretty bad.  All he would do is lay on dad and close his eyes.  He wouldn't even talk to me!  Mom and dad were thinking about taking him to the dogtur but then Goose's mom told them Dr. Eddy was out of town so they decided to just wait and see.  In the meantime every time Stanley rang the bell to go outside, dad carried him down and then back up the stairs.  Stanley weighs 36 pounds.

So dad (and a few times mom) have been doing this carrying of Stanley for several days now.  He is much better but still not 100%.  It has been rough on me cuz Stanley won't wrestle or chase.  He did smile more and play with Van Gogh a little bit today so we knew he was improving.  OK, now to the real story . . .

Today dad was making all kinds of noise in his dog house so me and Stanley decided we better check it out. Stanley went up and down the stairs by himself even though he is not allowed to do it but he just HAD to see what dad was up to!

First he drilled little peep holes in the door.  We liked it cuz they were the right height for us to look through.  We figured it was so we could see if a burgler was at the bottom door.

Then he took this one saw that was as loud as a jet engine and started sawing the metal door!

It was so loud that Stanley shot back up the stairs.  He got in trouble cuz he isn't allowed to up and down on his own.

This shows you how we get from the main level to dad's dog house.  Mom says there are a few less stairs and they are MUCH safer.

You can see why mom calls it dad's junk room dog house.

Stanley couldn't stand it and once again got in trouble for sneaking down the stairs to see what dad was doing.  We were shocked but at the same time thought it was very handy!

That was when mom explained that me and Stanley now have our very own doggie door!

FREEDOM!  

Murphy & Stanley