D for Dog

D is for Dog.  My sweet baby angel, Molly.  When the Chief and I moved in together, I decided to add a dog to the family.  We had a dog at the time, and I thought it would be a good idea to bring in another.  I went to the shelter by myself, and looked from cage to cage.  When I saw her, I asked if I could get some time in a room with her.  She was very timid, I knew she would be perfect.  She was 45 pounds at the time.  When I chose her, I had her on a leash at the front desk (paying my adoption fee).  I remember looking down at her feet and noticing how HUGE they were.  I asked if she was full grown and they informed me she was two years old and she wouldn’t be growing anymore.  I thought it was so strange that her feet were so big.  I took her home...six months and 45 pounds later she turned out to be HUGE.  

We were actually VERY lucky.  She is such a good dog.  She is still a bit timid.  She freaks out over weird noises or anything that clicks.  If you hold the remote control towards her, she cowers away.  Makes me wonder what happened to her as a puppy.  I can count on one hand how many times she has been naughty.  

She was having stomach problems, so the vet told us to put her temporarily on a rice and chicken broth diet. She was about four days in when I decided to bake a batch of peanut butter cookies.  After putting them on the counter to cool, we left the house to go run some errands.  I never thought twice about leaving food in her reach.  She had never taken anything off the counters before.  We came home and she ran under the table.  I knew immediately something was wrong.  I was shocked to find two cookies on the counter.  It was probably the first batch in three years that I hadn’t burned, and now they were gone.

The only other time I can remember her being naughty was very recent.  I came home upstairs to the bedroom and she followed me.  She went over to the bed and hesitated before going to her usual spot, under the bed.  That hesitation sent me straight over to the bed to see that she had spent the day laying ON TOP OF THE BED IN MY SPOT!!  I was furious.  I pulled the sheets off because I am EXTREMELY allergic to the dog and would not be able to sleep with her hair all over my bed.  The next day we left town for about a week.  To keep her off the bed, I lined both sides of the bed with pillows stacked up.  Then I put another line of pillows right down the middle.  This might not keep most dogs off, but I knew it would keep her off.  I figured with the bed already being tall, that with the pillows stacked up high, it would be WAY too tall for her to even attempt.  We come home to find dog hair ALL over the bed.  Not only did she attempt the bed, but she freaking sprawled out all over all six king size pillows, two regular size pillows AND a decorative pillow.  Dog hair covered my entire bed, and white down comforter.  I have never been so angry.  It took me three days to wash ALL of that.  She knew she was in trouble.  Needless to say she has become closely acquainted with the downstairs dog pillow when we are out of the house.