Thursday, January 27, 2011

Dog House

With that title, the Mr. will think this post is about him.  Not this time, though he sometimes finds himself there--and probably has good reason to be there now.  (That cold, with all the snoring that accompanies it, is going to have to go!)

Actually, it won't come as a shock to know that Baxter is in the dog house.  And since we don't own a dog house, he's in the metaphorical one.  He's been in big trouble lately. 

We've had a Baxter Bomb go off in the house.  (K's word.)  I call it Baxtergeddon. 

Baxtergeddon occurred on Martin Luther King day. The girls didn't have school.  Tiny Town High had an inservice.  I wasn't two hours into the inservice when the secretary came down to tell me that the Mr. was on the way to get me.  They had called him at work to tell him that his mom was really bad.  (She died that evening.)

On the trip to the Nursing Home with the Mr., I called and asked K to take Baxter out sometime during the day. 

When she arrived at our house, Baxter greeted her at the front door--tail a wagging.  That was surprise #1.  Baxter is penned in our utility room when we aren't home.  Uh oh!

K took one look at our living room and knew that Mr. B had been quite busy. She said it looked like a Baxter bomb had gone off. Everything that had been on the couch had been gone through and was now strung all over the room.  Surprise #2. 

What was on the couch?

*My purse.  I never take my purse to school.  I transfer my wallet or checkbook into my messenger bag if I think I am going to need them, but I don't usually need my purse.  On this particular day, I had taken my wallet- thank goodness!

*A shopping bag with part of L's birthday gift.

*Two photo calendars for K and L.  These were sent by my little sister.  The calendars have all the family birthdays and anniversaries. All the photos were taken by my sister.

The damage?  Baxter ate two ink pens, a tube of lip gloss, a small pack of Kleenexes and had started on a purse sized hand lotion.  Every receipt in my purse was scattered everywhere.  My checkbook was intact.  Thankfully, my purse was unscathed, too.  (He usually loves to chew on anything leather or fabric.) 

The gift for L was fine.  One calendar was not.  He had chewed the wire and part of the card stock pages.  Argh!!  Luckily, the other was untouched.  I think K arrived before he could start in on that one.

When K called about the Baxter bomb, I told her to check the rest of the house.  (Usually, no trash can is safe.)  Besides the knocked over gate to his pen, all she found was an old Pentax camera pulled from under my bed.  Instead of under the bed, it was now on top of it.  How he managed that, I'll never know. 

Yes, he was in big trouble.

Two days later the Mr. was sure Baxter would behave while we ran a quick errand.  He didn't shut Bax in the utility room, but left him confined to the kitchen and family room.  (That's his usual roaming area when we are home.)  The remote (already had replaced the first one he ate) and phones were out of Baxter reach. "What could possibly happen??!!" Yeah, the Mr. had to eat those words.

We arrived home to a coffee table tablecloth pulled all the way off the table.  The lamp was leaning at an odd angle. The two glasses and coasters that had been on the table were now on the floor.  One glass was broken.  I reminded the Mr. that this was his brilliant idea. 

Yes, Baxter was in trouble again.  He's been rather bratty lately.  I think the lack of attention during the last week might have something to do with it.  *sigh*

Mr. B has spent the last week and a half in the dog house.  And the Mr. will tell you that I am in the dog house, too:  after all, it was my idea to get a dog!

All I can say is-- it is getting rather crowded in here.

Signing off from Easy Street's dog house.  No vacancies at this time.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll take BOTH of them...Mr. AND Baxter!!! Send them my way and I'll even pay the postage! With the SNOW I got yesterfday AND the two of them my life will be complete :o) Love you my CrAzY CoUsIn!

holybovine said...

OMG! Good thing he's cute! That's what we tell our dogs quite frequently. Although I don't remember ever having quite the mess that Baxter created in your home. - the kennel is your friend. We have three and the dogs all "go to bed" pretty much on command.

A said...

aaaahhhh! that kind of thing made me crazy when i had my puppy! you wonder what goes through their minds... are they having fun? are they trying to let you know they are SOOO NOT happy with you?

my parents' dogs chew the corners of pillows off when they are pissed off. (literally no pillow in the house goes untouched!)

here's to wishing calmer doggy days to come quicker!

Sharon Rose said...

Uh oh! I guess Baxter is thinking it's not such a good thing to have a dog's life right now.

Mary said...

I can't imagine staying too made at him for very long! He's so dang cute!

Beth said...

Wow! And I still want a dog! Is it the same principle that makes me want to be a teacher operating in the "I want a dog" feeling!

Katie (Can't Get There) said...

Oh no!!! Our Coops was over 3 before we would leave her alone for any length of time. We even penned her at night! Hang in there, Mrs. E.!!