My daughter....the genus

I have two dogs. Tallulah and Tucker. I love my dogs, I really do. However, they both have habits that are a tad irritating. Tallulah is a digger. Tucker is a chewer.

I have the most beautiful flower bed in front of my house. Jake and I worked REALLY hard on it. We found plants we both like. We spent a couple of hours tilling the ground, laying weed paper down and planting flowers. Jake made several trips to the store, bringing bag after bag after bag of mulch. The next day we left Tallulah outside while we went to church. When we came back there were holes everywhere in my little flower garden. I could have ripped her paws off I was so mad!

Tucker, like I said, is my chewer. (Now granted, he is a puppy, so hopefully this too shall pass.) Normally during the day I leave him in my guest bathroom. Over the past week, he has performed several amazing feats. If I have anything on my counter top (that's right counter top) he can leap up, pull it down and eat it. I've never caught him in the act of pulling things down. But unless he is having some unseen help while we're gone, I have no explanation of how he is reaching the items on my counter top. He has also managed to nose his way into the cabinets below and pull out all my towels. Yesterday he pulled them out, peed on them and then rolled around in his pee. Argh!

The last straw was as I was bending down to pick up the trash, he somehow managed to get a hold of (from the top of the toilet), I noticed the bottom of my cabinet had been chewed! CHEWED! That was it!

I can handle the trash, I can wash the towels, I can wipe up pee, I can give him a bath. I don't even mind cleaning the bathroom more than once a week. (okay, I mind but it sounded good didn't it?) But, chewing on the furniture that is really hard to replace...that's the end to happy puppy days in the bathroom.

I found the chewed section of my cabinet this afternoon before soccer practice. I took the girls to practice and thought all practice long what I could do for Tucker. I had elaborate schemes of building Tucker a pen outside. I even debated putting him in the chicken pen (only for like three seconds). I could not figure out what I was going to do. Finally I had a thought! What if I attached a rope to the clothes line with a carabeaner? That way he could run the whole length of the yard and still have the deck to run under.

Yes! It just might work!

Ummm....where would I get the rope?

Dang it!

As I was stomping around the house, looking for the rope, growling because I couldn't find any. Abbie pipped up with her thoughts. This is how the conversation went down.

"Hey mom, what about the rope on the front porch?"

"Not now Abbie! I have to find rope! Quit bothering me and go take your shower!"

She just rolled her eyes and went upstairs.

I continued stomping around for quite a while. (The time will remain a mystery for fear of embarrassing myself in the future.) Finally it hit me! The rope on the front porch...it just might work! And it did!

I walked back into the house and saw her sitting on the couch. "Abbie honey, you're a genus".
She just grinned and said, "I know."

And so humble too.