Doggie Destruction

This time of year is always so busy -- gatherings with friends and family who come in town, holiday parties, gift exchanges, multiple shopping trips to get everything you need, and so much more. With all these wonderful things happening, it means spending less time at home and a bit more time out and about. I love having things to do after work and not feeling like my whole life is spent in an office; however, these two sweet puppies are not thrilled with less ‘mom’ time…

Normally, when I have something to do after work, I come home to let them out, spend some time with them, and then head out leaving them loose in the apartment -- I’ve become very trusting even with 7 month old Nolan. During Christmas; however, I’m a little more skeptical of their good behavior. There seem to be a few too many extra temptations around when Christmas decorations are up. My main concern is their curiosity with the Christmas tree -- and who can blame them with all the sparkling lights, glittery ornaments, and reflective glass balls just within reach? Not to mention all the tempting presents lying on the floor practically yelling out, “there could be something great hidden under this paper! Come chew it open and find out!” For these reasons alone, I have been locking up my sweet puppies when I leave the house in the evenings and I think they are starting to resent me for it.

The two times this week I’ve had to leave after work for some reason or another and they end up back in their crates, I’ve woken up to some major doggie destruction. I’ve discovered that on these days, they become nocturnal. Because they’ve slept all day and part of the evening, they go on a rampage while I sleep at night. The first morning, I found my poor, innocent plant torn to pieces and spread ALL over the apartment.

You can see the two culprits acting completely innocent when I discovered the mess. Also, please ignore the high-water curtains in the background -- they have been hung on the world’s tallest apartment window and can’t find their way to the floor. Short of getting them custom made (which I didn’t want to pay for) ordering 120” panels was my only other option, which still hasn’t cut it. As part of my project to-do list, I plan to attach additional fabric to the bottom so they will touch the floor and stop looking like a huge designer ‘no-no’, but more on that another day.

The second evening I had to be away I decided to confine them to a smaller area before climbing into bed. I thought I was being smart by shutting the bathroom door and bedroom door to prevent them from getting to the rest of the apartment, and particularly, from attacking the poor plant for a second time. I should have known they’d still find something to destroy in that tiny space…

Again, you can see the two suspects just begging to get on the bed like nothing is wrong. I do have to admit, the clothes on the side are my mess and my mess alone. After a couple cocktails last night, I was not feeling particularly neat and tidy and did not put my stuff away like a normally do. But the rest of it was definitely the work of my two little heathens. Side note: the cocktails would probably also explain why I heard none of this happening during the night and woke up completely shocked when I looked over and saw the mess.

The jacket on top of this pile was laid on my bed last night -- they must have found a dangling sleeve and pulled it right off. The bag beneath the jacket is usually stored under my bed and used often when I stay at my parent's house or need to carry a bunch of stuff to work. The fabric panel on the bottom of the pile was temporarily stored under the bed until after Christmas. It is normally in my TV stand, but for Christmas, even it received a little makeover and the normal panels were placed in a ‘safe’ spot. These little guys must have worked hard to pull all this from its original home!

You can see where this hydrangea’s home used to be -- on the bottom of my nightstand. Nolan has been pulling petals from this plant for the last couple weeks, so I should have known it’d be the next source of some major destruction. I’m just shocked they managed to pull the entire thing off the nightstand for some all over access!

You can see they also pulled out an entire stem and half the petals and spread them all over my room -- maybe they were just doing some redecorating :) Last but not least, they had some fun with my need to be organized. Those green cards used to be labeled and tied to some black, canvas under-the-bed storage bins. They have now been chewed on and missing several letters and their ribbon.

Needless to say, I’ve got some cleaning to do when I get home tonight and some quality time to spend with these little rascals. Should that plan fail, does anyone know of good obedience schools in the Dallas area?!