THE ANIMALS ARE WINNING
Cindy Maddera
"White cat/black dog"
Josephine is ornery. I mean, not all the time, but I spent most of Sunday picking up pieces of shredded Kleenex, moping up leftover tomato soup and explaining how we do not pull garbage out of the trash can. I know she ate at least half of a bagel because she came in with the other half, hunting around for a hiding place. She has discovered that she is just tall enough to pull trash out of a full trash can. She spent diligent time practicing this skill even after Michael chased her with the trash can while banging it around with the hopes of making the trash can into the scariest thing. Now, the trash can is a little scary, but not scary enough for her to keep her from stealing delicious treats off the top. When she wasn't stealing garbage, she was in the backyard shredding the seat off of one of chairs in the backyard or trying to drag the cat around by his hind leg. I don't know what her deal was, but she had a definite bee up her butt.
In about three weeks, Josephine will be one years old. She is still very much a puppy. I have taught her sit, down and off and for the most part, she's pretty good with those things. Coming when she's called works most of the time unless she has something in her mouth she knows she's not supposed to have. Yesterday, that object happened to be one of my slippers. We did a hostage style trade with her toy turtle. At least he squeaks; the slipper is just soft. She's not a bad dog. I'm making it sound like she's a holy terror. Most of the time she just wants to chew on a toy while you pet her. Lately she's been waking me up around 4 AM to go outside and when she comes back in I just let her stay out of the crate. She curls herself into a ball at the foot of the bed and keeps my feet warm. She is a lovable crazy hot mess of a dog.
One of my goals for the new year is to spend some time doing some serious obedience training with her. I have the know how. It's just been a hundred years since I've had to use that know how. In the meantime, we will be investing in a new trash can with a lid and maybe some puzzle treat toys. Now if I could only train the cat. This morning I walked into the kitchen to find worm parts and guts smeared all over the kitchen floor. This evening I came home to a cat who looked like he had rolled around in a mud puddle. I'm not sure what to do about that since Michael and I value our skin too much to attempt bathing him.