Scrubby snacks

I remember when we learned that Isaac was going to join our family. Fall of 2007. At the time, our little pile of spots was just six months old. At that age, Scrubs was into everything. He was a human vacuum cleaner. I asked JB how he would possibly be able to resist eating all the toys and clothes and little things that join your home when a baby does.

JB laughed. He had no earthly idea. He held up a pair of tiny little baby socks as we got the nursery ready for Isaac's arrival and joked, "Look! Scrubby snacks!"

It was true. Alas . . . a fact I am not proud to admit. Our dog, during the early part of his life, feasted on socks. Whole socks. Not just baby socks either. Adults socks! The big, long, athletic socks. He would swallow them whole! And then he would throw them up whole. I remember JB calling me out onto the back porch one time because Scrubs had thrown up a sock. Then John corrected himself. "Scratch that," he laughed. "It's a pair of socks." What the heck would a dog want to eat socks for?

And it wasn't just socks. Paper. Leaves. Sticks. If it was on the floor, Scrubs would try to eat it. Without question. I had to keep my house immaculate. I had to vacuum every day. It was worse than having an Elijah. Tonight we went to a residency dinner over at the house of one of the staff physicians. My friend Traci was there. She had watched Scrubs for me once when he was a puppy but said she couldn't keep him at her house because he was a "human vacuum cleaner." Amen to that!

When Isaac arrived, we were desperate to break our pup of the desire to put every single thing he could find in his mouth. We tried everything. Nothing worked. Finally we figured out the key to success. Bitter yuck spray. You can buy it at the pet store. You are supposed to spray it on things to keep your puppy from chewing. But we, sprayed it directly in Scrubs' mouth whenever he put ANYTHING in his mouth that he wasn't supposed to. Call it the ol' soap-in-the-mouth if you want. And call us mean if you want. But it worked. The dog figured out that chewing on things that weren't his meant a cruddy taste in his mouth! If he even put a toy in his mouth for a second, he got sprayed. After a few weeks, he got the idea. I haven't had to spray him in months now.

So the problem was solved.

Or so we thought.

A few months ago I was doing a clean-up of the backyard when I discovered a "Scrubby snack" mixed in with the items I was cleaning up! Unbelievable! The dog still had an obsession with socks. He had eaten one of the boys' socks and it had mixed in with the waste in the yard. Gross!

I also started noticing random socks laying in strange places throughout the house. Did I drop them while doing the laundry? Did Elijah bring that in here? Where were these socks coming from?

Last night, it all came together.

I was lying on my bed, reading, while JB was brushing his teeth and getting ready for bed in the bathroom. If you remember, our bed is up really high so it would be easy for me to be reading and Scrubs not notice that I was there.

Suddenly I see Scrubs come trotting into our bedroom. I can tell that he doesn't see me. He goes right to my closet, pushes open our closet door with his head, sticks his nose in my laundry basket, puts a sock in his mouth, and turns around to trot back out of the room when . . .

. . . he saw me.

Honestly it was just like catching a little kid with his hand in the cookie jar. Scrubs looked at me, dropped the sock, and took off down the hallway. In the moment before he left, he had this look on his face that said, "I had absolutely NO idea that you were up there on that high soft thing! Crap! Please don't spray me. Please don't spray me. Dangnabit. I'm caught."

Honestly, I was laughing so hard by the time I found him, hiding in his kennel, silently praying (and I really think he was because Scrubs is a Christian dog) that I wouldn't spray him what that stuff . . . well I couldn't bring myself to spray him. You could tell her already felt too bad about the whole thing.

Bad he got caught anyways.

That pup has brought us so many laughs. He is a lot of work. He is extra work. But he really is just "one of the boys."