Skip to main content

Bloodhounds and Asiago Cheese



Look at that face! I mean, just look at that face. So sweet, so adorable, so innocent. And so Black Lab.


 But, he's a deceiver - that Wally Piggins. Because he is sweet and adorable but he is also not just Black Lab and he is definitely not innocent!!

 He is part Bloodhound. And it's the part of him that's not innocent. It's the part of him that can smell:

           ~ An open jar of peanut butter within 30 seconds and from as far away as 50 feet;
        
          ~ An unattended loaf of asiago cheese bread or bagel (ASB) whenever he feels he has been slighted or I have gone into the shower. 

 There was a time when Wally would smell the jar or ASB on the counter and just jump up to retrieve it, run to another room and devour the treat. We would scold him and send him to his kennel/home (kind of like a time-out chair for dogs). After a year or two of this, he would take the contraband right to his kennel where he would devour only a portion. This is where I would find him, laying in his kennel with the ASB between his paws and look of remorse on his face. (I can almost hear all you cat owners saying now, 'Yeah, right, look of remorse! How do dogs have a look of remorse?!' and all of you dog owners nodding your heads saying 'Oh yeah, I've seen that look. I know that look'.)

 I learned after a year or so, that when I go into the shower I would give Wally a toy or kong stuffed with peanut butter and treats to keep him busy for the 15-20 minutes I needed to get ready. And this has worked wonders in minimizing our ASB Retrieval Incidents. It's worked so well, that I often forget to remember to put any contraband out of Wally's reach. (I know, I can hear most of you saying 'Why don't you just put the ASB away?' or 'ASB? That's full of bad stuff, you shouldn't be eating that anyway.' or 'What's ASB?' to which I reply in this order - 'I'm a work in progress', 'I know but I'm a work in progress', and 'REALLY?'). But occasionally, like yesterday, I forget to remember to:
     
     1.   Put the ASB out of reach;
     2.   Give Wally his kong.

 But yesterdays incident resulted in the ASB laying unopened or untouched in the kennel and Wally laying in the living room with his unfilled kong on the floor in front of him. There was a look of remorse. But I also think, based on the empty kong's proximity, there was a look of chastisement. 

 Like me, Wally is a work in progress! 

 #workinprogress
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

It's not a popularity contest, but ...

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

I put my pride aside and got my ass off the grass and into the wheelchair. {I spent a couple minutes deciding whether to put an exclamation mark after that declaration or to put the period after that statement. I think the period better suits my mood about getting said ass into the wheelchair!} On July 4, Saugatuck has a wonderfully unique parade that includes quirky participants like the artsy-fartsy campers at OxBow art colony and the LGBT members of a local foundation along with the more traditional participants like Girl Scouts, fire trucks, and local politicians. It had been a couple years since I had been to the parade, this year, though, my Mom and sister were in town and I wanted to take them. So we loaded up in the van, including Kerri's wheelchair and my own. Once we parked, John asked if I wanted to use my chair and I initially balked but then remembered that it can be a long, hot parade and it might be better to have a place to sit. So, I acquiesced and took the cha...
2 comments
Read more

Fairy Tales

What do London Bridge, Humpty Dumpty, The Three Little Pigs and Kathleen Piggins have in common? They all fall down!  Well with the Three Little Pigs it's not the pigs that fall but the house but I have three not-so-little Piggins and it just seemed appropos to include that fairy tale here! Because this is a tale about falling down. But it's also about getting back up! At last night's Douglas Social  my friend Kris and I meandered through the crowd greeting and often hugging friends along the way to the beer/wine tent - I spotted a friend that recently moved to the area and went to give her a big hug. and after proceeded to fall flat on my arse. Time seemed to stop and it felt that the all eyes in the crowd were on me as I landed and then proceeded to get back up with the help of friends. One of the saddest part of the fall, was that I had just gotten my first glass of wine and it was now all over me.  I thought "Thank goodness I was drinking white". And t...
1 comment
Read more
My aunt recently commented about my blog that I do a  "great job of sharing things very personal without them being morbid, too dramatic, TOO personal". I am about to let her down . . . It's been a tough week.  We learned that a man we knew from treatment at UofM, with a similar cancer, passed away on Tuesday. We knew that just after the treatment at UofM concluded, that his cancer had meta-sized to his lungs and other treatments (including one at John's Hopkins) did not help. John Cleasby was only 57. In my mind, I can see his face in the chemo infusion room at UofM - coping as all the patients were. He was a quiet and gentle man - who happened to be married to a former co-worker of mine. While sitting next to each other in the infusion area, it seemed a blessing that I found a long-lost friend in the chaos that was the UofM Cancer Center and hospital. Bonnie Cleasby and I shared so much and had such similar outlooks. "We are going to beat this thing", ...
1 comment
Read more