Thursday, December 22, 2011

My Scrubby

As it wasn't busy enough to have three young children at the same time ...

Our dear dog Scrubby (re)discovered "counter surfing" while we were out of town in Germany with JB's parents. (He had done this once as a pup but pulled a towel and thus a bunch of pans down on top of himself and scared the begeezers out of his little puppy self and then never did it again.) We knew leaving him home for long days alone wasn't ideal, but Veronica had another babysitting job during every day while we were gone, and despite daily visits by Angelica, and Veronica home with him in the evenings, his curiosity got the best of him.

He figured out how to take dishes out of the sink to eat the food. He discovered how to get into a trash can. Oh and did I mention that he learned how to open the sliding glass door all by himself to go outside? Are you serious? (Not that the last one is all bad. Sure is nice in the middle of the night when he lets himself out instead of waking me up. And, I still have the power to lock the bolt. He isn't that smart!)

JB said we have just lucked out. For four years, he's been crazy ... but he hasn't done the things dogs often do.

Now he has.

And yes, he is still swallowing socks. Pairs of them. Whole. And barfing them up. That happened on Wednesday again. A pair of Veronica's socks on a rug. It's always a rug and never on the tile. Veronica said she doesn't want them back. I don't blame her.

He leaves most of the boys things alone. But those darned bumble bees. JB's mom gave the boys a plush bee hive stuffed with ten little bumblebees to help the boys learn how to count. He just can't resist them.

We have lost eight. Two left. I cannot tell you how many piles of bumblebee wings I have found in the yard or in the kitchen or on the rugs.

Pacifiers is another. Do not leave Abigail's pacifier within his grasp. He will eat it.

Every ... time.

He can also wake up the entire house in a matter of seconds. During naptime one day, he came into my room where Elijah and I were sleeping. Woke us up with a lot of sniffing in our faces. (Which is mighty cute even though slightly annoying.) Then he went into Abigail's room and sniffed her awake too. Which started her crying and woke up Isaac next door.

Four people.

Five seconds.

One dog.

I must remember, when I am stressed out over Scrubs, the good he brings our house. Protection. Companionship. Teaching the boys kindness to animals. Devotion. I must remember how much I love him.

I just finished the book: The Art of Racing in the Rain which is creatively narrated by a dog. It is an AWESOME BOOK! If you are a dog lover and can handle books that are a little sad, READ THIS! It was my first read on my husband's Kindle. And it was fantastic. One of my favoritest books ever. LOVED IT!

This book reminds me how loyal Scrubs is. How much my buddy he is. How soft he is. How comforting.

He is part of our family.

And he is a good boy.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

We have an 8 yr old dog, generally well behaved. He has always counter surfed so we are trained to put food away. He eats toilet paper so we are trained to hide it. However, at age 8 he has begun to eat handkerchiefs and then moved on to socks. We usually don't know they are missing till we find them when we clean up the poop in the backyard. Old dogs do learn new "tricks." Or acquire new bad habits. But you have to love them anyway.

Stephanie Doyle said...

Dogs can be a lot of work at times. We have a 4 year old lab who is usually very well behaved. A couple times a year though, we finds his way up the counter to eat cookies, pizza, etc. But like you, I still love him so much. :)

Susan said...

I LOVE your Scrubby - he makes me miss my Purdy and Sadie (Dalmatians)! Now we have Max and Memphis and they are entirely dogs of a different color (minature Schnauzers)!! But, we love them, too!

Anonymous said...

I read that book also . I loved it . I found your blog from the dalmatian board and i love hearing about scrubby It reminds me of my Mccloud .

Faith said...

Oh wow, that is how my Doberman was - but we loved him dearly and miss him so much. My little dog now is not so much of a personality, but a really good dog - her only issue is MASSIVE separation anxiety. Scrubs sounds like a riot! I don't know how you do it with all that going on! But I am SO thankful there are people out there like you who appreciate their dogs and don't get rid of them the minute things get hard...too many sad stories like that out there...

miss fluffy said...

absolutely! love my dalmatians, too! they can be funny, obnoxious, smart, loud, disobedient, etc... but they are always loving, and most especially when you need it! the book is awesome, too... one of the best books ever!