I'M A BELIEVER

You will never convince me that dogs aren't intelligent, and capable of communication. Some of them, at least. We had a dog once, named Munchkin. She was our first child. A friend found her, as a tiny puppy, on the streets in a rough part of Houston, and we agreed to take her in. Much to our surprise, she more or less housebroke herself the first weekend we had her, and never had another accident after that. Except for one time, and that, my friend, was no accident.

As I said, Munchkin was our firstborn, and our great solace through all the years of miscarriages, surgeries, and procedures. Then, one day, I finally found myself in the end stages of a pregnancy, and we felt confident enough to begin work on a nursery. We threw ourselves into renovating the room that was to welcome our first "human" child. In fact, it turned into a bit of an obsession. It became our nightly ritual, before going to bed, to stop off at the nursery, flip on the new Winnie The Pooh balloon lamp, and stand there for a few moments, admiring our handiwork. One night, when preparations were all but complete, we saw it - a huge pile of doggie poop placed squarely in the middle of the nursery floor. She never had another "accident" after that, but then, she didn't need to. She'd made her statement, and we got the message loud and clear.

That brings us to our granddog Guinness, who is here visiting this weekend. Our son recently began attending doggie school with her, to help her become more social. The instructor had him buy what is called a "gentle leader", a thin loop of leash-like strapping that fits around her nose, and tightens up when she strains at the leash and tries to drag you down the sidewalk. It's a vast improvement over those horrid choke-chains they used to employ, and works like a charm, but boy howdy, does she ever hate it. You have never seen a dog manage to look more pitiful, than when she sees you walking towards her with that putrid pink thing in your hand!

Not long ago we heard horror stories from a friend who's new puppy has a habit of eating supposedly inedible things, which lead them to ask their vet if he couldn't just install a zipper in Elliott's stomach, to save them a bit of trauma and expense next time he gets an obstruction. We all said "Aren't we lucky that Guinness never does that!" The only things she has ever chewed up are any toys we give her with a squeaker in them, such as that monkey on her head. She goes after them with an unbelievable amount of determination, and will not give up until she manages to remove that squeaker, but she never actually swallows any of the parts.

Last night after dinner Austin took Guinness out for a potty walk, then went down to the guest room, took off her leash, and went to the restroom himself. A few minutes later he came running up the stairs, looking rather pale, and held out his open hand to us. In it were all the pieces of hardware that used to be attached to her gentle leader, with only tiny shreds of pink strap still attached to them. The rest of the strapping was nowhere to be found. We consulted with Nicki, the voice of experience, for signs of distress to watch for, and are now on poop watch. I will let you know if everything comes out OK, in the end. Hopefully, this is a one-time thing. She has made her statement, and we got the message, loud and clear!

P.S. Time is running out! Don't forget to leave a comment between now and tomorrow night, if you wish to be included in this weeks prize give-away.