Introducing Murphy and Bella - the Garbage Dogs

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Ever have one of those days when your dog/s do something so annoying that you can't even look at them? When you've found something so "after the fact" that yelling like a banshee would be meaningless? And of course, you find this annoying, disgusting and downright unimaginable deed when you are nicely dressed, in a hurry and had just cleaned that area a few hours ago.

Well yesterday, in my hurry to leave for my first appointment of the day, I must have left the pull-out trash cabinet open enough for the my dogs to be able to pull out a full bag of garbage. We had a rotisserie chicken the night before and the whole finished carcass went into the trash. Along with 2 burnt bags of popcorn, rotten strawberries, cucumbers, apples and lettuce, and left over fetticini alfredo, many assorted wrappers, and it was topped off with a nice big heaping of coffee grounds!

Oh the feast they must have had....I can just picture them gobbling it up as fast as they could, in case mom came home unexpectedly and caught them. When I did get home, I found two very dirty faced dogs, coffee grounds all over my newly dry cleaned wool kitchen throw rug and steam cleaned kitchen floor, as well as in their water bowls and on my bed and couch. There were half eaten wrappers all over and every single bit of that chicken carcass and everything else was no where to be seen. Not one morsel anywhere.

After I calmed down enough to realize my yelling was futile, although they both looked guilty as hell, they had no earthly idea what I was ranting about. I spent the next hour cleaning or let's say RE-cleaning my kitchen floor and then realized the extent of damage all this might bring on my poor doodles. I kept picturing big chicken bones stuck in their bellies, all the fat from the Alfredo causing pancreatitis, the impending vomiting we could expect in the next few days.....my mind ran rampant with ideas. So I spent the rest of the day with them, taking them out to go potty, waiting for some sign that everything is passing without any issues. I am still waiting actually. And not really sure for what, but it seems some signs of this chicken should appear doesn't it?

What was funny to me, yes I actually found something funny about this... Is that I really wasn't sure which one did this, and ofcourse I will never know, but as I was giving them each a bath, I found evidence on each one. Bella had coffee grounds deep in her beard and Murphy had a fruit sticker from one of the apples stuck to the back of his paw. No denying, they each partook of the garbage. Now I have nicknamed them my "garbage dogs" . Geez. I had never ever thought of rehoming my dogs before, but I sure wished I could have sent them somewhere yesterday.....for a few minutes anyway. Gotta love those doodles. We now latch the trash cabinet too. Like closing the barn door after the cows are gone. Oh well.

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

Boy, do I sympathize.  What a yucky mess. Once in awhile I do not get the door shut tightly enough and my two raid the trash - never been quite that bad as we don't drink coffee. 

 

  Tuesday was  the day Roo and Tigger got in big trouble.  Only not.  They ran through the open gate and ran up and down our short street like a couple of street dogs.  First rule they went through the gate - an absolutely forbidden deed.  Second neither Roo nor Tigger would come when called.  It took me a good ten minutes of trickery to finally get Roo to "down" and then take him home... calling to Tigger in my sweetest voice "let's go home ...cookies"  This whole incident followed hard on the heels of Tigger stealing a container of Frontline Plus out of my hand, puncturing it with his teeth, my frantic "drop" followed by Tigger dropping it and Roo picking it up, so both got a mouthfull.  Vet said give lots of water and don't panic, should be ok.

 

Nuts, double nuts and *ell's bells as my grandma would say.  The time and training I have put into those two,........nutballsdoodles. And of course I could not seem mad at all as then they will for sure never come again.  They were in the doghouse and so was I.  When I calmed down I remembered I had not told them "sit,wait". Of course they are not supposed to go through the gate, and have been trained ad nauseum not to cross that line.  Still I always use the "sit wait" as insurance.  At least I did not have to clean up anything. 

 

As you can see the extended heat wave is taking it's toll on my nerves and the dogs' have cabin fever! 

[Bonnie and Kona]

Oh Maryann, I feel your pain. We work so hard with Owen and then he finds his moment to streak past us and run down the street in hot pursuit of a real or imaginary squirrel. It has scared the livin' daylights outta me. 

[Candice & Bailey]

Ooh, naughty doodles! Tsk tsk. Don't do that to poor mommy!

[Barbara B., Sasha & Oliver]

OMG Sue !!!!  I had a visiual of you whole story !!!  What a scary scene to come home to !!!  My trash bins are in a pull out draw and I always make sure it is shut, not that the doodles could not open it because they could with their noses, they just don't thank God !!!!   Of course it was after you had everything cleaned - it would not be any other way - LOL.  I hope the doodles pass everything ok, because that would be my concern too.  You can always clean a mess, replace a carpet or material thing, you can never replace your doodles !!!

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

So far stools are looking normal again after some softer ones yesterday. Eating and drinking just fine. Who would've thought after how protective we are of all the chews and toys and sticks and etc, that they could eat so many chicken bones and be fine. But it's only been about 48 hours, so we still have to keep an eye on them .

[Bonnie and Kona]

Glad you posted this... hoping it helped to vent a bit. Doodles are so incredibly lovable, but darn it if they don't find ways to test that quality! 

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Totally helped to vent. Didn't feel so angry after I could admit that it really was my fault.

[Lonnie & Libby Lu]

Soooooooo true Bonnie!

[Pat and Traveler]

Oh, boy--I would be totally freaked out!  Neither Trav nor guest dog Grendel have ever gotten into the garbage, and they could do so quite easily.  I've wondered sometimes, when there was particularly yummy stuff in there, why they never try--but they don't.  If I had a different dog here, I would have to make immediate changes.  Neither of these dogs counter surf either.  Knock on wood!

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Oh Pat, please send them to my house to train my two ! We are still working on counter surfing. But the garbage is totally new as we have always had covered pails so it was never an issue. Bella is my opportunist and Murphy is the hunter gatherer, so between the two, I have no chance.

[Sue & Lily Grace]

Isn't it really annoying when we have to admit it is really our fault that our dogs have gotten into trouble. So sorry you had to clean up such a mess and then give the doods a bath too. Hope they are feeling ok.

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

So far, so good Sue. Still on poop patrol though. Murphy looked like he was having a hard time passing some during our walk this morning, but he has since the chicken, so fingers crossed