Having a Pet Door Makes Everyone Lazy — But I’m Still Glad We Got One

With three cats and three dogs, I felt like I was getting up to let someone in or out every time I sat down. Finally, after months of my begging, Jesse put in not one but two dog doors. The first goes from the mudroom, where we confine the three dogs when we leave the house, to the garage and the second goes from the garage to the fenced-in yard.

Pickles was a little slow on the uptake when we first put it in — Julius, the less-than-5-lb kitten — mastered it before she did, but now she’s a champ. There’s just one problem. Now that I’m not letting the dogs out the back door onto the patio, instead of walking to the woods to do their business, they just do it right outside the door and come back in.

If it were just Pickles, no big deal. Let’s face it: small dog = small poop. But Murphy and Ty are both lazy and HUGE POOPERS. I swear, I nearly tripped on one pile today that was the size of a cantaloupe. So I spent about half an hour wandering the yard this morning with a shovel and a pitch fork to clean up their deposits. (Incidentally, I found no chicken bones.)

I know I’m just a big whiner and everyone else in the world has to pick up dog poop, but it was just so NICE when they would go out of the grass to poo. Seriously, make Mommy’s life a little easier, guys? And while you’re at it, stop eating feces. It’s gross.