Gratitude Journal #3

Apparently, you can train your brain to be happier by keeping a gratitude journal, so I am giving it a go. My goal is post about 100 things I am grateful for over the course of the year. (This should average out to just a little over 2/week.) However, I am going to try and stay away from the standard family/friends/pets. Please know I absolutely am grateful for my family, friends, and pets. I would not have made it through the past couple of years without each of them. But if I am trying to train myself to be happier, then I want to start recognizing the smaller things in life that I am grateful for.

Gratitude Entry #3: Junebug’s Crate

The most important thing to understand about Junebug’s crate is that it allows me to remain grateful for my Junebug. Junebug will be 10 years old in 3 months, and in many ways, she is still very much like a puppy, though she no longer has the “wrinkly head” of her 10 month old self. But personality wise, she is still a mischief seeker and a force of destruction.

While she is no longer the destroyer of ALL bedding, she can still put a hole in a blanket in less than 5 minutes of you not paying attention. And if she wanders into the closet, you had better chase her out immediately, unless you would rather have your dirty laundry destroyed instead of having to wash it.

We had actually stopped using Junebug’s crate years ago, shortly after we got Larry, because Larry kept trying to make it his space, and we did not want her space being taken from her, and we did not have room for a second crate. However, with the recent move, we put her crate back in our room. And it was one of the best decisions we made.

It takes a lot for a space to be Junebug safe. She will chew on batteries, hairbrushes, plyers, paper, collectible cards, wallets, phone cases & phones – really, anything she is not supposed to chew on. (Bones and chew toys hold her attention for about 5 minutes.) And we had not made our room Junebug safe by the first time we needed to close the dogs away. (Our room still is not Junebug safe, but that is because we are in the process of sorting about a million collectible cards.) And so, in her crate she went.

We were a little worried, given how long it had been since she used her crate, that she would not take kindly to be closed in it. And while she does not like being closed away when she can hear you elsewhere in the house, that has nothing to do with the crate- she simply does not like being closed away from her people. But she took to the crate again right away. After closing her in it while we went out, we came home and left it open while we were doing other things, and Junebug took herself right in and settled.

And so, as our room came together, we made sure to plan for a dog bed for Larry, and a spot for Junebug’s crate. They each have their own space they can retreat to where no one bothers them. And when we leave the house, Junebug goes in her crate and is kept safely away from mischief (and the harm it could do her).

And seriously, I am always happier to see my dogs if I KNOW nothing got destroyed while I was away.

I do not really want Junebug to grow out of her puppy-ish ways (which is good, because I do not think it would happen anyway), because I hate to think about her growing old. But I also do not want her hurting herself by getting a knife off the kitchen counter, biting into a battery, trying to climb onto a shelf that will not hold her, or eating a bath towel. And so, I am grateful for her crate – a place she and I can both enjoy as her safe space that is safe for her (and the rest of our stuff).