it's all fun and games until someone gets their face scratched

so my sister has this really precious little (and by little i mean kind of big) dog.  although not much of an animal enthusiast myself due to my fear of things with more legs than me, this bundle of joy has grown on me over the past few weeks.  i've been doing a lot of dogsitting when i've been in town and although i'm not very good at it, i've survived.  i'm still trying to teach her to do something helpful like carry my luggage into my bedroom or bring me a diet coke, but i'm willing to wait.  don't all those glass-half-full kind of people always say good things come to those who wait?  we'll see about that.

she's just pretending she doesn't love the glamour shots.

ali (the dog) isn't supposed to get on furniture because let's be honest, she's the size of a small elementary school student.  and her blonde hair gets EVERYWHERE, but i'll save that for a post about what not to wear when you're dogsitting (ex: black tights).  anyways, i would sometimes let ali get on the air mattress with me because she was having ear problems as some labs do and it made her feel better to sleep by me or something like that.  apparently i'm a comforting presence.  let's be honest, she probably just wanted to manipulate me and get on the air mattress.  sneaky little thing.

regardless of her intentions, i still thought it was funny and let it happen.  one night ali forgot she was the dog and i was the human and she actually nudged me off the pillow and laid her own head in my spot.  it was so hysterical to me i just decided it would be a head-on-mattress type of night.  looking back on the situation, i imagine it's like the first time a child draws on the walls or stuffs a box of tampons down the toilet (shout out to my sister at age two!) -- it's funny at first (or is it?) but then it's like come on did that really happen?!

that's how i felt yesterday when ali came to "check on me" during my nap (and by check on me, i obviously mean take advantage of my lenient no-furniture rules).  she climbed up onto the mattress and little by little began to make her way up towards the pillow.  the few moments of thinking ali was funny came quickly and went even more quickly as i really just wanted to keep sleeping.  i don't know if she was pissed that i didn't cave into her wishes this time or if really she was just getting me back for all the times i made her play glamour shots as i took countless dog modeling pictures, but either way she decided to take a swipe at the side of my face.

and swipe she did.  she left a nice little scratch from the middle of my right ear down the side of my cheek and as i squealed in pain (yes, i have a flair for the dramatic, and no, it didn't hurt that badly) i was instantly brought back to a 10th grade slumber party where a cat clawed my upper lip in the night as it ran across the living room (now you know why i fear creatures with more legs than me -- they have so many options for attacking my face).

my mom insisted that it didn't break the skin (she was wrong) and she was confident that it wouldn't leave a mark (strike two, mom).  i attempted to cover it up today with makeup, but i'm pretty sure i just ended up with an orange, oompa-loompa inspired face that can only result from a) too much tanning, b) too much foundation, or c) actually playing the part of an oompa loompa in charlie and the chocolate factory.

so what did i learn?  dog scratches don't go away over night regardless of what mom says.  and also, it's all fun and games until someone gets their face scratched.