Club Cleanup | Working From Home

I got last-minute approval to take the morning off, so I was at the club by 9am today. Despite the quick response to the storm, the room already smelled just a little bit off. There were huge wet spots on the matting that hinted at a worse mess underneath.

There were 7 or 8 of us working. We moved all the agility equipment to a dry area and ripped up most of the matting, exposing standing water below. As a few of us worked on the mats, others set to work with wet-vacs and towels. The amount of water was incredible with large, quarter-inch-deep puddles in a few areas. To further complicate matters, the mats are custom-cut around the walls and pillars, necessitating very careful placement of the ripped-up mats to ensure they would fit back down again.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that our work was complete in 2 hours. By the time we left, the professional chemical-cleaner was already working to clean, disinfect, and partly dry the soaked matting. No mold for us!

I had fun, despite the circumstances. One of my fellow 9am students was there (the one whose dog Maxwell convinced to go psycho), I met another member with a rescue dog, the membership chair, and even the club president! Mr. Trainer preceded to embarrass me for the second time in three days, boasting of my work with Sadie to the club president. (The first time was when he announced, to the whole class on Saturday, my trial results.) I can't honestly say I minded, since I am very proud of our accomplishments, but it was unexpected. Besides, my success reflects well on him, as it should.

The remainder of the day was spent working from home. Yay... Maxwell made it ever so much more pleasant with his dash-and-whine routine. It went something like this:

• Hang out on the deck
• See something worth chasing / greeting / investigating
• Start a constant stream of high-pitched crying
• Run the length of the deck, into the apartment, down the hall, into the office
• Stop suddenly
• Stare at me
• Be quieted by my attention
• Repeat

As you can imagine, it got pretty old. Once, as he ran into the room, I looked at him and said DOWN in a firm tone. He silenced and dropped like a stone. It was amazing. Too bad it only worked twice! I ended up having to give him time-outs in his crate.

Sadie just wanted the occasional belly-rub, and to woof at the mailman. Good girl!