First and foremost I love the pictures of the dog I wish mine was that loyal oh, actually it is more to my wife...
Two things one think about the floorboard underneath and pounding it up towards your patch to help pinched the two together and those areas where they lifted so they can get a lot closer to be tacked... And so you can go over there where the water is puddling up drill a little quarter inch hole and the lowest spot so you can get out of there and not pool up...