Love Affair With Chewy

I originally wrote this March 12, 2010 on http://www.gather.com  I wanted to have a place to keep my puppy stories.  Guess I did this backwards.

One of the questions that the Vet asked me was the puppy’s name. Simple enough, except … “we thought Missy Miss sounded good. When she gets into mischief - I think El Diablo fits, but mostly we call her Baby or “The Baby”. Dr Berst nodded and wrote on her file Missy Miss or “What Ever”.

Baby has the softest coat and when you look at her face it just looks so sweet. She is actually a thief – A Thief of Hearts. Dan says it best. “How can you stay mad at such a little sweetheart even when her chews.”

He loves her dearly and he is such a permissive parent. He hates putting her in her crate. “When I ask him if he crated her?” He always responds, “She said she’d be good!”

Needless to say I have come home to a house that abounds with shredded paper, wood shavings from branches in the yard. The first week she lived with us she got hold of Dan’s c-pac mask. We went to the oxygen place and replaced it. The next day when he came to pick me up at school we were talking about the puppy. He admitted that she had gotten in trouble. I asked what she had done.

“She ate your mask.”

I was not happy! I told him he was very lucky. I had a spare because I hadn’t yet started using the new one. I reminded him what the tips on the crate said: “Pets should be supervised by a responsible person. I told him that would be you.”

The next day when he came and got me- he sheepishly admitted the puppy got in trouble and he crated her when he came to get me. Then he told me:”I told her that she was in trouble but I was probably going to get skinned.”

“What did she do?”

“She escaped the back yard, but was back in before I could get to the gate. AND she ate your mask again.”

I looked at him with disbelief, “Didn’t you crate her when you weren’t watching her?”

“No.”

“Didn’t you close the bedroom door when you weren’t in there?”

“No. I thought you were going to put the mask up so she couldn’t reach it.”

Irritated I responded; “I did put it up.”

My husband was a lucky man – it was not the new mask but an older spare nose piece. I’ll wait to skin him later. Maybe we should just call the puppy –“Chewy”.