New Home, New Fears

Last summer, when we first got Ellie (and she was the cutest. puppy. ever.), we quickly found out that she was afraid of going down stairs. She would go up them just fine, but if you wanted her to get down the stairs, you had to carry her. Since you HAD to go down the stairs in our old apartment to get outside, this meant a lot of Aaron & Heather carrying the puppy down the stairs so she could go potty. This was fine while she was a little thing, but by about 5 months we got more aggressive about getting her to go down the steps. By herself.

It didn't take long until she was running up and down, up and down, up and down the steps, using her newly-discovered skills.

And then her world got turned upside-down a little bit when we moved into this house. Among the hundreds of different things she's had to adjust to, the stairs in our new house (since they are over 100 years old!) are very different than the ones she was used to. The steps are very steep and the treads are pretty short. And to throw another curveball in there, they make a left turn at the very bottom, so it's not just a straight-shot anymore.

Eventually, she got over this too. But there were several instances where she found herself upstairs, unsure about how to get down them, and very panicked.

And then I realized this house doesn't just present new fears for the dog - for us too! After a few big storms recently brought trees down in our yard, I find myself terrified during thunderstorms now. In fact, there's a whole list of things that I never thought about before that now have me laying awake at night: carbon monoxide, lead paint, smoke detectors (& fire extinguishers), our home's stone foundation, etc etc! Some of these are mostly irrational (hey, we had a home inspection and they think the foundation is fine!) and some are just quick fixes (just go buy a fire extinguisher already!)

But I can't help but worry. This is my life now.