Reuse and Recycle

A friend sent me this link and photo today and it made me laugh and think of the time when Gus chewed a hole into my mother's couch last fall. Thankfully we were out of the country in Germany when Gus decided to tear into it, so by the time we got back Mom's frustration with the situation had simmered and we were hardly scolded for our dog's misbehavior. Of course the couch still hasn't been fixed, she just strategically places a throw pillow in front of the torn section.

Oh, and yesterday Gus chewed a hole into his own dog bed here at home, but we've never had anything as bad as this photo happen at our house! This reminds me that I love this Bird On A Wire doggie duvet by Molly Mutt, a company based out of California that sells durable, stylish, and easy to clean duvets to cover your dog's doggie bed. You can cover an old dog bed with one of Molly Mutt's duvet covers, or you can stuff a duvet with old clothes, sheets, bedding, etc. that you might have lying around the house. Reuse and Recycle! These duvet covers are innovative, fresh, and fun and we love them.

Let's Play A Game

I realize that I haven't posted in quite a long time, long enough that many of my readers have probably thrown in the towel thinking the writer's block was too thick, or that maybe the wedding got the best of me and sucked out all of my creative juices.

But this story is too funny not to share. So we're back, and hopefully we'll be here for a while. There are no weddings or other life changing events in the forecast so we should be good to go. My energy can re-focus onto House & Hound and this blog.

So this afternoon I decided to finally break open the "Solid Gold" brand bagel treats we've had in the pantry for over 5 months. I'm not sure why we haven't treated the dogs to these before or why we waited so long for them to try these tasty snacks.

I pull two delicious bagel treats out of the bag and give one each to the boys. They each take a treat and go off to a separate corner of the room to supposedly enjoy. Except they don't even try them. They sit sniffing at their bagels, and then get up and walk away, apparently in disgust. (Remind me some day to tell you about the time Gus ate a dozen Bruegger's bagels!)

A half hour goes by and they've totally forgotten about the bagel treats, when all of a sudden they start playing with them again and I finally hear Gus munching on his bagel in the upstairs den, and Charly gnawing at his in the kitchen. Gus finishes his bagel in 2 minutes flat, and comes down to see if Charly has finished his yet.

Charly always takes forever to finish up his treats, so of course he is just hanging out, with the bagel under his nose, sniffing it, munching on it a little, but mostly just guarding it. Evidently he knows his brother Gus all too well, because Gus begins to stare intently at Charly and his bagel for the better part of 45 minutes, obviously trying to find some way to get that bagel away from Charly and into his own jaws.

So the dogs continue to stare at each other, and as the minutes go by Gus gets closer and closer to Charly and his loot. Finally he tries for it, but of course I'm there to make sure life is fair for these two. Since Gus already finished his own treat, I end up putting myself between the two dogs, and scold Gus for trying to steal away Charly's treat. I mean, I know he's your little brother, I know he's your subordinate, but come on! Can't you just be a little generous to a fellow member of your family!

I give the treat back to Charly, who promptly sits back down with it, and continues to just guard it. He doesn't take a bite out of it, or lick it or anything, he just sits there with it. How infuriating for Gus! Of course Gus is back at the staring game, trying to manage someway of distracting me this time so he can grab the treat and make a run for it.

After a while of this back and forth staring game, Charly gets up and leaves his treat behind. Apparently it wasn't good enough for him. This time I let Gus get it and he eats it as fast as he possibly can.

Does this story remind you of when you were a kid and your big brother or sister wouldn't let you near his candy bar, even though he or she hated Baby Ruth's?