The Case of the Missing Bell

A quick recap on our life. Well, Scrubs' life. He uses a bell to go to the bathroom. Well not to go to the bathroom exactly but to tell us he has to go. It really isn't as complex or as brilliant as you may think. It's a fairly popular training method that we picked up on due to the fact that Scrubs doesn't bark much. It was just association. Everytime he accidentally hit the bell, we opened the door, until he figured out that if he made the bell ring, he got to go outside. Of course, he uses it for more than just bathroom requirements. Manipulation is his game. He rings that bell anytime he wants out of the kitchen or a bit of attention.

So anyways, the bell. It actually hangs on the back laundry room door since that was the door Scrubs would go out to go potty when he was a pup before we had a yard. We now have a fenced backyard and now let him out a sliding glass door, but he still uses the bell on the laundry room door to tell us it is time. (We tried moving the bell over by the sliding glass door, but the poor dog got mighty confused.)

Alright, back to my story. The bell . . . is missing. We know Scrubs didn't move it. So who did? Well, we are pretty sure that one of our boys (and our gut tells us that the responsible culprit has a name that begins with an "E") took the bell off the back door. We've looked everywhere for it and we've deduced that the bell most likely was dropped into the garbage can which sits right next to the door.

. . . I won't even get into the fact that the garbage can is in the laundry room in the first place to keep Elijah from playing with it. I keep the laundry room door shut but Scrubs knows how to open that door so I have a doozy of a time all day keeping it shut. Part of me thinks that Scrubs and Elijah are in cahoots. Hey little buddy, I'll open the door for you so you can play with the trash can and my bell and the dirty laundry and my water bowl if you drop me a few extra treats at dinner. How's that sound lil' buddy? How Elijah got in there without me seeing it and had enough time to take it off the door and put it in the garbage can, I definitely will never know. I swear that kid is going to be a magician when he grows up.

We could be wrong. The bell may emerge hidden in some other location. But Elijah isn't really a "hider" yet. He's still just a "taker." So we think that the bell probably got taken and dropped promptly into our garbage can.

If anyone has a cowbell they aren't using, feel free to pass it along to us. I think we need a new one. :)