One sleepless night later

How do I begin to describe last night?

To say Tinkerbell wouldn’t settle is the understatement of the century.

We did all the right things. We made her crate a comfy nest with a brand new bed, we gave her treats in her crate, we fed her in her crate, we sent her to bed with a lovely Kong stuffed with fresh chicken, we even climbed in the crate with her for goodness sake but she was having non of it. As soon as we closed the door she screamed and howled. I was worried the neighbours would complain we were ill treating her the noise was that bad.

Next we tried plan B. We took her bed out of the crate and put it on the floor next to our bed. Still no luck.

Plan C. I got out of bed and laid on the floor with her. This isn’t something I’d normally do but the poor girl had been uprooted, travelled across the country for 10 hours and then stuck with these strange people and a strange dog. I felt she deserved a little pampering.

Still she wouldn’t settle. This farce continued with Kevin on the floor with her and then a combination Blue and Kevin, me and Kevin, me and Blue, me, Blue and Kevin, all of the above but in the spare room away from the crate etc etc

You get the picture but nothing worked.

In the end at about 4am Kevin and Blue went back to our bedroom and I allowed Tinkerbell to sleep on the spare bed with me. Again not something I would normally do but she’d worn us down so much I’d have agreed to sell my children I was so tired.
Eventually we all got some sleep but Kevin and I were determined this would be a one off.

Tomorrow we write to the neighbours and apologise in advance then we go back to basics with the crate training and she stays in there until the morning.