The new and improved...Dog House

All I can think of at the moment is that Spring has sprung a leak. One major blessing-my house is on pillars so I don't have to worry about flooded basements or water in the house or, in the case of some in Fargo, the possibility of my house floating away. The only real worry I have right now is that my dog Mindy Lou could have puppies any day now. Since her current bed of choice, a nest of straw insulating our water line under the house, doesn't provide enough protection from wind and water for brand-new puppies, Lanny built her a doghouse. This is the second doghouse in the last year and her third one overall. The first one was a cardboard box with a hole in one side and the bottom cut off. We put old baby blankets on the floor for insulation and voila-instant dog house. It worked until she got too big to fit in the box, but it was spring at that point so we just burnt the box and blankets. The second doghouse was built this past Fall. It is constructed of small square straw bales stacked up on three sides with a piece of plywood for a roof. For extra insulation, we spread straw inside and on the roof. Unfortunately, Mindy spent more time on top her doghouse than in it and it drifted in over the winter. Now, it's too reckety to use and she's due to have her puppies soon. I was all for making her an 'actual' doghouse out of wood, since there's plenty of scrap wood laying around but Lanny didn't want to go into that much effort. His idea is to use an old pickup topper placed on a pallet but he needs to put some straw in it before she can use it. We will see if Doghouse #3 is the way to go or not. I'll keep you posted.