Many of you may remember a few months ago when Cameron the dog ate his house.

When we bought the house, it looked like this:

After Cameron redecorated, it looked like this:


Paul deftly rebuilt parts of the house and reinforced the walls. Aside from some occasional gnawing on the doors, Cameron discontinued the demolition.

One evening a few weeks ago, I was sitting in the living room reading when I started to hear odd noises. It almost sounded like someone doing carpentry work, which was an odd set of sounds to hear around 11pm. I looked out the window and found that Cameron, in fact, WAS doing some carpentry work. He was finishing off his house.

All that remained was one wall, half of another wall, the floor, and the roof — which, without support posts at two corners, was dangling to one side.

Determined not to pay another hundred dollars for a house soon to be demolished, I set about the task of finding a new house for cheap as free. Or at least cheap.

I searched craigslist, the neighborhood listserv, and freecycle to no avail. I checked local thrift stores (the Salvation Army store on 1st has a good selection of pet carriers, just no houses). In my desperation, I checked closeout stores like Big Lots and Tuesday Morning. Big Lots had a decent-looking house for $50, but it looked so lightweight that I feared Cameron would toss it around his yard instead of sleeping in it. Tuesday Morning had several, er, pet tents. Those were interesting.

Finally, I took the advice of Ivy and Laura (doled out via Twitter) and actually ASKED the listserv and freecycle if anyone had a dog house to spare. Voila! I got several responses offering dog houses.

Several people offered me wooden dog houses for free, but since Cameron splintered his old one, I thought it best to try something different. I found one of those igloo-shaped houses for $20 (they retail for ~$150).

So far Cameron has dragged it around the yard a bit, but no damage has been done. I won’t really be able to judge the success of my search until I see if he uses the house during storms and such.

Stay tuned. Same dog time, same dog channel.