Sure! He looks all innocent and what not, doesn’t he? Well, this guy is a career criminal, a miscreant of sorts. I knew that when we went on our Christmas vacation to Texas and spent 10 days that, when we got back, he would probably mope around for a few days, but I didn’t expect what I actually got. He went on a ‘crime’ spree.
Normally, when we leave the house, we let him have the run of the house, although there’s usually not much running that he’s going to do. He just likes to choose his places of slumber. Occasionally, if someone has left a tasty morsel, or what smells like a tasty morsel, of food in a trash can, he’ll go for it! When we arrive home and he doesn’t greet us at the door, we already know that something has happened.
Since coming back off of our vacation, our trash cans, no matter which room, have been vandalized. His trash can crimes are usually isolated to the bathrooms, for some reason.
His first incident of note was getting caught in Tony’s room. Tony’s door closes by itself because I put a bit too much WD-40 on them. Oops. Anyway, Hobbs smelled something, went in, found the treasure … an 11 ounce bag of Hershey’s Kisses with caramel! Naturally, he at the whole thing, foil and all. We didn’t know until some hours after the fact when Tony went to his room and made the discovery. A quick call to the vet indicated that, based on his weight, he had only eaten about 50% of the chocolate needed to be toxic! Phew! We were told to keep an eye on him as he might need to, ummm, errr, go the bathroom at bit more frequently than normal! Thankfully, it didn’t happen. His barker was a bit sore for a few days though. It was kind of funny to hear him try to bark a lot.
So, not learning from that lesson, we continued to let him stay out, but had Tony remove all chocolate and foodstuffs from his room, which wasn’t supposed to be there anyway, but that’s an entirely different post! Within a few days, he made a pantry raid. No, not a panty raid, but a pantry raid! He decided that while we were gone that perhaps a few of those mini muffins , about 16 of them, on the bottom of the shelf in the pantry just might be really tasty! Who could blame him … we left the pantry door wide open!
OK! Now I get it!!! I’ll keep him in his crate, or Hobbscienda, as I call it, while we are out. Now, he doesn’t get in trouble. So, yesterday, I offered a little parole. I closed all doors to the bathrooms and the pantry and let him stay out. Lo and behold, he made it into my office and the bathroom downstairs and vandalized the trash cans.
What can I say? Parole revoked!
About the title: Much thanks to Kathy for the title of this post! She coined this word in a previous post. I told her that I would use it one day and today is that day!
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4 Responses to “Hobbservations”
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Yes – he certainly does look innocent – that is a very sweet photo. I have always been partial to a pet with a mind of his own – they make for a very interesting relationship! I love the part about not greeting you at the door when he has done something he knows is naughty.
I can tell by the photo, guilty!
hmmmm, I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks. Now how does one unteach them? Hopefully it will something like one of my son’s “spells” he goes through. He picks up a nasty habit and it takes forever to break him of it. Then one day, it just stops. Usually to be replaced by another annoying one, though. Believe it or not, emptying out the trash cans (and flushing some of their contents) was one of his at one time. It’s been a couple of years, but the cans are back in the bathrooms again!!
Hah!
Good luck.
Hobbservations–love the title!
When our kids were young, we lived in Germany on the top floor of a three-story building. We had a sweet little mutt whose big brown eyes were soft and innocent.
But when Easter rolled around, watch out! The tradition in Germany is similar to our Halloween. Children take pretty plates and go door to door. Neighbors fill their plates with chocolate bunnies, some of which are a foot tall. I’m talking serious solid chocolate, not the hollow bunnies we often see in the U.S.
So one year, our sweet pooch sniffed her way to the hiding place for my son’s chocolate stash. She pried open the drawer with her paw and pulled the drawer out. While we shopped for groceries, she ate through the foil and devoured one whole foot-long chocolate bunny. Everything we read said that chocolate was toxic. Our vet said to keep an eye on her. She eventually passed the shiny red foil (that’s another story), but showed no signs of the chocolate affecting her. She lived to the ripe old dog age of 14 1/2.