31-May-2024 and into June - Pivot back to Dublin, Ohio

The new friend I had visited earlier in the week was planning on driving from Ohio to Portland, Maine on Saturday to deliver some furniture to an apartment he and his wife are moving into (she is already there). He was planning on taking their adorable little 10 year old dog Sophie, but Sophie has lots of car anxiety and would have been miserable on the 14 hour trip - plus she would have been one more thing for them to manage while in Portland, so I offered to turn back around and stay with Sophie while he went to Portland. Lucky me I get to hang with an absolutely adorable dog who is so easy to care for and loves to snuggle!

Sophie has some adorable habits. She sleeps in a crate next to her parents bed and in the morning when she first wakes up they let her out and she comes up on the bed and snuggles for another hour or so before needing to get up and go pee. I moved her crate and her stairs into the guestroom where I’m staying and we continue her routine in the morning – she is so cute!

She also has 3 places where she loves to sit and keep an eye out on everything: the back of the couch in the den (which gives her full view of the kitchen), the chair in the livingroom (which gives her a view out the front of the house), and on about the 7th stair on the staircase which is high enough so she can see out the transom on either side of the front door. She’s always keeping an eye out and you can’t sneak up on her! And she loves sugar snap Isas and gets them as a treat and in her meals.

I also offered to do some yardwork while here to help them get the house spiffed up and looking good for photos, open houses and showings. They suggested a wonderful local nursery, and said I should buy deer resistant plants whenever possible. Who knew there was such a thing as deer resistant plants? Not me! But this area has lots and lots of deer and they munch on everything and so I got a list of deer resistant plants and made sure that there were some in every flower pot I put together. I brought back a lot of different colors and styles of plants and got to work. Stay tuned for some “before and after” pics once Operation Yard Beautification is complete!