04th Aug 2007
just put it on her tab
Willa is sitting next to me, grinning at me as I write this and sucking up all the cool air from the fan. We just had a long walk (as long as you can walk a black dog in this heat) and a game of fetch on the stairs, which the downstairs neighbors must love.
Willa has entered a big chewing phase, which not surprisingly coincided with me teaching so much and having to be out of the house. During the last five weeks, while I was so busy, her spree has included:
- My nice new Teva flip flops
- two pillows
- two couch covers (thank God we use cheap comforter covers for the futon from ikea)
- the wooden arms of the couch
- several student papers
- countless pens (which means there is ink everywhere)
- several towels
- two of my dressier sweaters I took off when I walked through the door and she promptly ran away with (actually once before I even had it off all the way)
- all the corners of our rugs, even the round one, which is a feat unto itself for physicists to study
- our nice LL Bean comforter
- the kitchen rugs
- part of a shower curtain
But how does she get these things, you ask? Well, short of living in a hermetically sealed, empty plastic box, we have found that she can suck items from a remarkable distance into her crate. She also participates in drive-by chewings, whereby she either runs or walks by and, moments later, we hear crunching and chewing from the other room. Usually she takes her spoils straight to the futon we use as a couch (unless that is the spoils, which is why there are still feathers and foam flying around).
What the hell? If she wasn’t so damned adorable and loving, I would send her straight to the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm. But even on those mornings when I make it down the stairs and Chris tells me, in a somber tone, that we have a “very bad dog,” I still love her.
Now if only we could keep Naima (black kitty) from licking all the pictures on the walls…
Dr. D.,
I have a black dog too. She’s actually a Black Lab/Hound Mix. My husband and I got her about two months ago. She is now 6 months old and we got her from a rescue group. She looks mostly Lab and acts mostly Lab.
Like you, if she wasn’t so sweet and loving, she’d end up back at the shelter! I have lost 3 pairs of flip flops and one pair of sandals since she has become a part of our family. She also ate my friends flip flops as well. She has a shoe fettish I guess! Not sure if you can post pictures here but here is a pic of her:
[img]http://mysite.verizon.net/russandrachel/Mollysmall.jpg[/img]
If that doesn’t work just go directly here:
http://mysite.verizon.net/russandrachel/Mollysmall.jpg