By Trent Rosser

The holidays are finally over with. Thank God! I’m grumpy, irritable, cranky and down right mean at times. I have no patience and I am stressed from spending money and trying to find the right gifts for the right person. After all, what do you get someone that is always saying “ I don’t need anything”? Fighting the crowds, just to get home to wrap everything and put it under the tree. Finally, the day comes. Or should I say the days come. As most people now a days, they have Christmas on different days. Here is an example of my family: we have Christmas here, another time at my Mother’s, another Christmas at my Father’s, then we have to have Christmas at the in-laws’ house. Did I mention that we do this during Thanksgiving also? So finally the best day of the year arrives, January 2. This is the day that the holiday season is finally completed, that is until October comes around and then it starts back up again.

With Christmas shopping, and an incident that happened with us just before Christmas, we have been strapped for cash. Usually, on paydays we will go out to eat and the following day we will go and see a movie, or just leave the house and have fun. Sometimes it is just taking Hunter and Hades (those damn dogs) to the dog park to run and play. We would go out, and every now and then, we would leave town. Just to get away. But we have not been able to do it for quite some time. Even if we just jump in the truck to take off, it still needs gas, so needless to say, we have been stuck inside for quite some time and it is starting to show. My wife is frustrated at me, the dogs are frustrated at both of us, and I am frustrated at everyone and everything. We tried to play a couple of board games, but the “Walking Dead Monopoly” is something that you can only play a couple of times before it gets too boring. Luckily we received a couple of board games for Christmas. We played the game “Jumanji” a couple of times and then we tried the other games. One of the games was called “Stupid Deaths”; it is suppose to be a funny game to play. Once we opened it up and got the board all set up we noticed we were missing something. The specialty playing cards were missing. They were not in the box and we assume that someone forgot to package them at the factory. So on to the next game.

“Escape room” was a game we were looking forward to playing. We have been to a couple of actual escape rooms and we really enjoyed them. So we couldn't wait to start this one. As I was reading the instructions, something wasn’t making sense. Then I read some more and it said that you had to have a minimum of 3 players. Not a problem. My wife, myself and Hunter the dog. Well, as smart as I want Hunter to be, he can not play board games. I didn’t work out, so back to being frustrated at everyone and everything.

Let's get back to the dogs. I did not know, but pets too can get cabin fever. Signs that your pet has cabin fever is a few different things. If they start growling at neighbors and friends that they know. If they start fighting with other pets. Well, Hunter and Hades are always fighting with each other, so that is a maybe. As for growling at the neighbors….. Here is what they do. Our neighbors will be cooking out right next to our fence. Both Hunter and Hades will go crazy barking at them. Our neighbors will always throw them a couple of hot dogs to them and they will shut up barking long enough to eat the hot dog. Then they start barking again. It is strange because when the neighbors come into our house, they dogs attack them. Not in a growling, barking or biting way. Hunter and Hades attacks them with kisses and licks. Not sure how this cabin fever works with the dogs, but it seems that Hunter and Hades has been infected with cabin fever for the last 3 years!

Soon the sun will come out, our funds will be replenished, and we will be able to get out of the house. Cabin fever should only last a few more weeks. We will start to go out to eat again, maybe a movie or two. We will be able to take the dogs to the dog park to run and play. The wife will be happy, the dogs will be happy and maybe, just maybe, I will not be so frustrated at the world. But we all know the truth, we will get out of the house, we will be able to relax and when we go to bed at night, the dogs will still jump in the bed with us, cuddle with my wife and try to choke me out. Cabin fever or not, the dogs still try to kill me! Maybe if I feed them hot dogs, they will love on me like they do the neighbors. But most likely, they will still love on my wife, attack me, and try to choke me out while I am sleeping. Yep, I can’t wait for cabin fever to go away and things get back to normal. Yep, in this household, this is normal!