Since Charlie and I are both retired Millie is rarely left alone. She was used to being crated when she was at her foster home and while we have a crate for her we don’t have many opportunities to leave her in it. A couple of days ago Charlie and I had appointments at the dentist for regular teeth cleaning. We always have our appointments at the same time since our dentist has more than one hygienist available. I was curious how Millie would react and decided to spy on her while we were gone.
A little while ago the Pet Blogs United site had a post called “Help Fido Get Into Skype” so I decided to give it a try. Here is how it went…
Mini Millie will fill in for the real Millie during this re-enactment of the actual events. According to the PBU post I set up two Skype accounts. I set my laptop on the end table so it would point at the crate and logged into Skype with one of the accounts on that computer. I had also changed the settings on my laptop and Skype account so the computer wouldn’t go to sleep (it was plugged in and not running on battery) and Skype would answer my call automatically.
Charlie put Millie in the crate with a Nylabone to chew on and a biscuit to entice her to go in quickly. The crate door was shut and he left quietly.
While I was waiting for Charlie in the car I logged on to Skype with my other account and dialed. I could see Charlie put Millie in the crate and she didn’t make a peep as he shut the door and left. I was happy to see that.
We arrived at the dentist with a few minutes to spare so I did a quick check to see how Millie was doing. At this point she had been there for about 20 minutes. She had eaten her biscuit and was sitting in the crate looking around. She must have seen the camera light come on because she looked straight at me for a while. Then she went back to looking out the windows.
Mini Millie needed a boost to see out the windows so she used the Nylabone to help her. We purposefully have her crate in a corner of the family room where there are windows on two sides. She loves to lay and look out the windows to watch the birds outside and was keeping herself occupied by doing just that.
Before we left the dentist I checked on her again and by now she was laying on her side and looked like she might be asleep. It was good to see that even though she isn’t crated often that she was still very relaxed in there. She didn’t even go any crazier when we got home than if only one of us was gone.
While I was photographing the re-enactment the real Millie decided to step into the crate to see what was going on. This worked really well. I’m glad I have the Kindle Fire with the 4G so I didn’t have to rely on being near Wi-fi to be able to connect to Skype. Thanks to Pet Blogs United for posting this handy guide. If you ever want to spy on your pets this is an easy way to do it.
Bird Brains & Dog Tales 