DogWatch '09: The First Casualties

Scout has been doing unbelievably well for a youg pup with Labrador DNA and a mentor who took a year and a half to learn how to "shake". After about a week, she pretty much refused to go back in her crate and since it was there mainly for her to feel safe in our absence, she's had free reign of the downstairs ever since. She's also completely housebroken and plays really well with both Lucy and now Cassidy.

She had been doing so well that I just knew a slip up was coming.

Yesterday morning I was wary walking in the door from dialysis as I knew the dogs had not gotten their morning walkies. Ryan had left early to go to Waco for work and I don't walk them on the days I get my blood cleaned. On first glance everything looked in order. There were no sofa cushions on the floor, no area rug stains, no dead cat. I settled on the couch, grabbed my computer, went for the power cable and pulled back a mangled cord.

I sat staring at the cable for about 10 seconds and then looked at Scout.

"Scout, you are one lucky dog"

About 15 minutes later as I was quickly writing e-mail and scanning the news before my laptop died, I heard the scraping of doggy teeth. Scout was gnawing on the fireplace, which is made of this soft....stuff....look, I don't know what it is. Plaster? So yeah, she was in the process of sculpting a large hole in the base of the fireplace.

I thought all of this chewing was anxiety over not getting walked, so when we retired to bed last night, I made sure my computer (now being powered by Ryan's cord from work) was up on the kitchen counter and tucked Scout in with all of her stuffed toys.

This morning I awoke with Lucy making a flying leap onto my head and Ryan informing me: Scout chewed through the phone cord. And ate my shoelace.

I am on a mission to PetSmart today to locate that spray that supposedly deters animals and to buy the dogs some nylon bones. And off to the Apple store to procure a $70 power cord. I guess I need a new phone cord as well.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Scout sounds like Levi. Just ask Matt and Juan D what precious items they lost to his curious jaws : (

Hope the nylon bones and spray do the trick : )

Nicole
August 20, 2009 at 3:49 PM
J.S. said…
I think if Scout gets a firm talking to (i.e., yelling at) and gets kicked outside for awhile when she does stuff like that she'll learn pretty fast. She seems really smart.
August 21, 2009 at 8:17 AM
The League said…
She is smart. However, not smart enough to not immediately lick the spot on the fireplace where I'd just put the sour-apple spray this morning.

I felt no pity.

She ate the shoelaces out of my two pairs of work shoes this week. I'm wearing my lawn shoes to work.

I am becoming smart enough to not leave my shoes out.
August 21, 2009 at 1:24 PM
J.S. said…
Yeah, I guess the sour apple spray thing must be clinically proven in some way to deter dogs. It just seems strange that such a product would share a common flavor with a tasty Jolly Rancher candy.
August 21, 2009 at 4:00 PM
J.S. said…
It's been a week. Where's the new post, slacker?
August 27, 2009 at 1:12 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

October Update

So. Today I went in for a couple of procedures that I have known were coming for a few months now. For those not up to date, I have long had cardiac issues stemming from my even longer-term kidney issues. For those who are up to date, forgive me for repeating myself a bit.  Luckily until this year I have not had any symptoms. This spring I started feeling bad.  Shortness of breath, a strange scratchy sensation in my chest, coughing, and just running on an even lower level of energy than usual. In July I had a left heart catheter. At that time my cardiologist determined that my lower left ventricle was working extra hard to keep blood out of the upper ventricle and by turn out of my lungs. This is referred to as Mitral Regurgitation . The plan was for me to pull as much fluid as possible at dialysis to relieve some of the pressure in my heart. I did start feeling a bit better due to this action in the past couple of weeks, but we still needed to go back in and check that pressu...
Read more

Fake Fun

Image
Last night on our way home from letting some furniture delivery guys into my parents' house in San Marcos, we stopped at T.G.I.Friday's * for dinner. Neither of us had a specific craving for Friday's, it was just on the way and we were hungry. It's going to be a good long while before we return, at least until I forget how sucktastic it is. We didn't have any of the big chain restaurants in Lawton when I was growing up, so eating at a Chili's, Bennigan's, or the OG ** when we were in Dallas or Houston was something of a treat. I remember thinking back then the food was actually good, maybe just because we didn't eat out all that often. Nowadays, Lawton is littered with all the favorites, with Outback Steakhouse, Applebees, and Chili's in the same block. There is even, after 20 years of it's rumored arrival, an Olive Garden. I haven't been to the Olive Garden in like, forever! Ryan and I were discussing this as we left the restaurant, tha...
Read more

Big Decision

Some of you may remember the series of tests I had done last year as part of my ongoing adventures in Coronary Artery Disease (which was brought on by my ongoing adventures in End Stage Renal Disease). To refresh your memory, my cardiologist felt it may be time to have a defibrillator placed on the off chance my heart should stop and I should not happen to be in the emergency room at that exact moment, though with me this scenario is not as unlikely as it sounds. The test results were a mixed bag. The big test, the electrophysiology study where they tried to get my heart out of rhythm, didn't turn out so great. Not only were they successful in throwing off my groove, they had to shock me to get my heart back into rhythm. On the other hand, I keep getting echocardiograms where the results are borderline. My heart function is clearly less than that of a normal person, but not yet to a critical level. So that's where I've been for the last few months. Data was collected...
Read more