Funny (and not so funny) Animal Shenanigans

I'm sitting here at my computer and I hear my cat yelling at me for some attention.  I look down just in time to see him lean heavily against a box on the floor, attempting to rub his face against it.  The box slides across the floor.  The cat staggers and falls down.  Oops!  A little too much body English!  Embarrassed cat fastidiously licks himself, pretending it didn't happen.  Kind and sensitive owner that I am, I laugh hysterically.

I did not laugh yesterday when my puppy, Asterisk, chewed the power cord on my new drill.  She didn't even have the decency to chew the plug end, which I could have replaced.  Nooooo.  She chewed it off where it enters the drill, leaving no room to splice a new cord.  I caught her in the act, and was able to punish her, which probably didn't have much of an effect on her, but it made me feel better.  :-) 

More Puppy Antics

Yesterday I spent the day with my friends, Jacquie Rogers and Judith Laik. Jacquie has an in-home theater, and we lay in recliners all day watching movies (something we do several times a year).

It was the first time I left the puppy in the fenced yard all day long without supervision. Those of you who read this blog regularly, or who follow me on Twitter will have a good idea what happened while I was gone all day. That's Asterisk above with a sock in her mouth. I was taking pictures today of the socks she'd pulled off the clothesline the day before. She grabbed one and I snapped the picture. The massacred foam pad is something else she had taken off the line. By the time I arrived home, she'd gotten into a lot more things! Notice the picture of her looking so innocent in the foreground, while in the background lie the remains of a hanging wooden planter she had destroyed, along with plastic pots for seedlings, and ivy leaves she'd yanked off the ivy vine.

Here's a partial list of what she did:

• pulled a hanging planter off the deck table (where it was sitting, prior to being hung) and dismantled the planter and spread dirt and plants all over)
  
• chewed on the deck, the steps, the gate, the porch railing, the ivy covering the railing, and probably lots of other stuff I haven't found yet


• pulled an old rubber sink mat from the garbage and chewed it up


• ripped a pair of my socks off the clotheline


• shredded a blanket.
  
• knocked over a water bucket. Knowing her propensity for this, I'd put out two water buckets, since it was a hot day. The other bucket was fine


• climbed INTO a whiskey barrel planter and flung dirt at least 50 yards away. Dead plant bodies lie all over the yard


• got into my empty pots and planters that were neatly stacked on the deck table. She scattered them all over the yard
  

The bottom two pictures show the steps she chewed on, and the rubber sink mat she demolished. You know what, though? I'm just laughing. I see the humor in what she does. It's not malicious. It's just pure puppy fun. And if you can't have a little fun in life, then what's the use of living?

Asterisk, the Monster Demon Annilhilator Puppy

Just look at that sweet Boxer face on the left. That's Asterisk with her big Doberman sister, Nova. Don't they look cute together? Doesn't Asterisk look innocent?

Don't let that puppy face fool you. She's at it again. Her name's Asterisk, but it should be Destructo. It's actually quite funny. She has learned the joys of ripping things off the clothesline and subjecting them to dirt, dog poop, grass stains, dog slobber, you name it.

Thankfully, today the only things on the clothesline were dog blankets and socks. I can see how she got the blankets off the line--they hung down within reach of curious doggy mouths. But the socks? She must have taken a running jump to get high enough to nab them. And she got 4 of the 5 socks off the line.

Thank goodness she isn't a destructive chewer. She never shreds the stuff she takes off the line. She just drags them around and tosses them in the air.

Time for me to get out the old shock collar. It's imperative she learn that taking things off the clothesline will have shocking consequences. (insert sound of evil laughter) How can something with such a sweet face do such diabolical things? I guess it's all part of being a puppy.

So, what's left on my clothesline? One lonely sock, which she was apparently unable to get at. Doesn't it look forlorn, all by itself?

Bad Dog, Good Dog

You've heard the old bad-cop-good-cop routine. Well, apply that to dogs, if you will. I have a 4-year-old Doberman bitch that couldn't be more perfect. Nova is so well-behaved and inobtrusive that when I'm invited to visit friends and family, they tell me to bring her along.

And then there's Asterisk, my 7-month-old Boxer pup. For the past several days she has been trying my patience to the limit. If there is something to get into, she's gotten into it with a vengeance. A few days ago she flipped an entire bowl of kibbles with her foot, just like tiddly-winks, and shot kibble all over the kitchen floor. It was like someone dropped a bag of marbles. She has utterly destroyed her very expensive high density foam crate pad & cushy afghan I'd placed on top for extra comfort. That's the picture, above.

She knocked over a potted plant and it smashed to smithereens. Dirt and pottery bits all over the place. Then she had the audacity to steal the little plastic dish thing you put under plants to protect furniture (picture on left).

She has chewed a piece of plywood into oblivion, leaving it hanging in strips. She has pulled the bark off a small decorative log I was using as plant stand on my deck. She is still not housebroken, and must be let out every 15-20 minutes or I'm cleaning up accidents.

My exasperation with her is at an all-time high. And just about the time I wonder why I thought it would be fun to own a puppy again, she comes into my bedroom where I'm working at my craft table, creating cards, and lies down at my feet, just to be near me. And my heart melts as she puts her chin on my foot and sighs happily.

Puppies. They're as bad as children.