The Roanoke Times: The Happy Wag

Comments

# 1

[March 28, 2008 2:47 PM]

Amanda

Katie came to live with my boyfriend (now husband) when she was 6 months old. She is a part chow, part terrier, part boxer. After having her several months, she still got a little stressed out if we left her for too long alone. One night, my husband came home a couple of hours late and Katie had eaten the sofa. She had literally pulled about a 2 or 3 foot tall mound of stuffing out of the sofa and put it on the floor. I was THRILLED. I hated that sofa anyway! I had nothing to do with it - I swear! That was 8 years ago and she is still a healthy, happy member of our family!

# 2

[March 30, 2008 5:44 PM]

Kim

Back when I was a child we had a Chesapeake Bay Retriever named Molly. One Easter morning my sister and I got up and checked out our Easter baskets before heading out to church. In each was a chocolate bunny and lots of little chocolate eggs in colorful foil wrappers. We left our baskets on the coffee table while we were at church and Molly decided that she wanted some Easter candy too! When we got home all that was left of our baskets was some plastic grass and pieces of foil. She did manage to leave the big bunny alone so at least we were able to salvage some chocolate! Mom contacted the vet and thankfully Molly did not suffer any ill effects other than a belly ache and a few not-so-pleasant bowel movements. My sister and I, on the otherhand, were very upset that our Easter baskets were destroyed but we never left them in reach of the dog after that!!

# 3

[March 30, 2008 6:50 PM]

Deborah

My dog became a "convict" at the age of 11 weeks old! She was trying to get her little ball back from me, unfortunately those little needle sharp puppy teeth went into my hand, I jerked it and I couldn't get it to stop bleeding. I went to the hospital and they called Animal Control! I was very upset of course and kept saying please don't take my puppy. The officer was very nice, came out the next day and served her and/or me with a quarantine notice. She was under "house arrest" for 10 days! Right before that happened, she discovered that the toilet paper really will go through 3 rooms..now I keep it up very high. She also has eaten all of the cushions off of the kitchen chairs, the cushion off of the sofa and has ripped up several rugs. She tore a pillow completely apart that I used to have on the sofa. I keep everything up very high except for what is left of the sofa. She has torn up about 6 pairs of bedroom shoes and constantly steals my laundry out of the basket and runs with it! (All of my socks have little holes in them). She had a dog trainer last year...that woman left town. She also learned that if she pulls up on the kitchen cabinets, she can pull everything down including the towels..which now all have holes in them. I think her motto is "puppies just want to have fun."

# 4

[March 31, 2008 9:04 PM]

Laura

We have a Jack Russell terrier named Demi. We should change her name to Houdini. She can get out of our totally fenced yard by climbing trees and jumping over, or digging under, or even climbing the fence itself. Even fencing around the trees, attaching a fence flat on the ground two feet out from the bottom and running a hot wire around the top hasn't stopped her-she's learned that if she pushes hard enough on the cattle fencing the welds themselves break and she can push right through. It wouldn't be so bad if she hung around, but she has to look for trouble to get into---there is a man down the street that has about 10 cats and a cat flap into his house, and I totally understand why he's annoyed when our dog goes into his house at 3 in the morning barking at his cats...she's done this three times and each time we fortify the yard further until it looks like Guantanamo Bay. The lastest is we now have put invisible fencing around a totally fenced yard to keep her from getting near the fence....so far, so good....(said as I start knocking on wood)

# 5

[April 1, 2008 3:00 PM]

Dana

I have two Australian Cattle Dogs, about 40 lbs each. I took them to my parents house one vacation. I got there right at dinner time and didn't have time to put together the crate for the younger one. I told my parents, 'Oh, they're good dogs. They'll be fine for an hour our two." Well, when we opened the door there was mud and dirt ground into the carpet everywhere. The dogs had gotten a hold of my mom's plant (it was two small trees of some sort) and played tug of war with it. The biggest problem was that my mom had just watered it. Fortunately, my mom had a shampooer and was able to clean the dirt up. Then she said "I was meaning to separate that plant."

# 6

[August 20, 2008 1:50 PM]

Kathy Shaw

We got The Devine Ms M about 8 years ago. She's half American Bulldog and half Border Collie. She's energy times 4.

I soon found myself walking her at all hours of the day and night. She house broke herself, never offering to go in the house.

Until "one dark and rainy night" we were out in our front yard. A deer snorted at us. That scared M so badly I had to change her name to Poop Doggy Dog.

I would take her out, nothing, she couldn't wait to get back inside so she could slip off to the garage.

Our garage became her personal bathroom. I was constantly finding doggy doo in the most unlikely places. The smell was eye-watering.

It was hard work, but she's been The Devine Ms M for several years now. Poop Doggy Dog is a distant memory.