Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Writer's Workshop - January 25

I'm really starting to love The Writer's Workshop I've been doing for the last couple weeks. It's always such a good mix of serious and fun topics so that I can always find something I want to write about. For this week I glossed over the serious question of telling of a time you felt left out, because I felt like my last post was serious enough to last this semi-closed person a few days. :) Instead, I went with the fun topic of:

1.) If you could change anything about your pet, what would it be?


This question pertains solely to our beagle Daisy, becase Radar is pretty much the perfect cat. (Except for when he upchucks his hastily eaten meal all over our kitchen floor, like he may or may not have done today....) This is Daisy:


She's pretty cute right? Beagles are generally pretty dang adorable (you should see beagle puppies!) but let me give you a little advice Do not get a beagle. Ever. Even if someone pays you to get a beagle. Not worth it, my friends, not worth it. 

I would like to circumvent any blather about how "dogs are as good as you make them" now, by pointing out that I rescued Daisy (on the day of her execution no less!) from an animal shelter when she was 5 years old. So all of her bad habits were firmly ingrained by the time we became her family.

Daisy is an obsessive eater finder. THAT is what I would like to change about her. My dog has eaten pretty much everything imaginable, and lived to eat another day. I always joke that she's made a deal with the devil and she will never die. She's eaten a penny. She's chewed on a AA battery. She's eaten over half of a bag of Hershey Kisses. She's eaten a good portion of a box of tissues. She's eaten a sock. Yes, a sock. It came back out a few days later, whole. Not the same way that it went down. I swear to the good Lord Almighty that this is a true story. How could I even make anything like that up?

One of the annoying things about Daisy is that she is smart. If she dug out a tissue that fell behind my husband's nightstand, every single time she comes into our room for the rest of all eternity she will go root around that nightstand looking for another delectable tissue to consume. If the weeniest little corner of a bag of food is at the edge of the counter she will stand up and use the very corner of her paw to somehow whisk that bag of food onto the floor and into her jaws of doom. I really would not be surprised if someday she learned how to push a chair over to the counter. I would tell the world about my amazing trick dog that obviously sold her soul to Satan for her amazing powers, but I probably wouldn't even blink at the time.

So that's my dog. I would say that I'm probably much more of a cat person than a dog person these days. I love Daisy, but Radar is so much more low maintenance. We don't have to watch his every move and assume the worst when he takes off down the hallway. I do feel like it's only fair to point out that Daisy has done beautifully at adapting to Raegan. She lets Raegan pet/maul her every day, and rarely growls at her. She even suffers through good night kisses from Raegan most evenings. She's always excited to see me when I come home and I get a very joyful greeting. If I could just change that whole must-eat-anything-that-could-possibly-be-food problem, we would be set.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

See, this is why I don't want a dog. As much as cats are ungrateful, dogs are just cracked.

I've seen the sock phenomenon. My childhood dog, aptly named Chewie, did that, chewed the plastic out of trucker hats, ate a whole set of watercolours (joy is a rainbow of dog poop) and my favourite, a thumbtack.

I'd like to write more, but speaking of things in league with the devil and selling one's soul, Vlad has another pipe cleaner.

Seeing Through New Eyes said...

Ah Daisy. . . ..
Of course, you know our experience was just the opposite. After Bear and Murphy, how could you not prefer a dog over anything? And after Binker who was beyond hig maintenance. . . . well, my opinion of an indoor cat. . . . thank God for Radar who does help balance out my opinion a little.

LivG said...

LOL! I am more of a cat person also. What a crazy dog!

Laurie said...

That Daisy is a Doozy!

Carrie said...

this is why I like cats more than dogs. Dogs just take TOO MUCH time :)

Even though Daisy is a trouble-maker, at least she is a cute one!

Visiting from Mama Kat's

Anonymous said...

I knew a dog that once ate an entire motorcycle seat and washed it down with antifreeze and lived to tell the tale. The owners were hoping the antifreeze would hurt its kidneys and they would be done with him...it didn't. That dog lived to be 13 and got hit by a mailtruck, I think it was trying to eat the mailtruck.

Anonymous said...

SHe IS adorable! Honestly that's why I don't think I can ever rescue a dog from the pound (that and other issues). There has to be a special place in heaven for people like you!

http://jadenotjaded.wordpress.com/2011/01/21/no-pound-puppies-please/

Unknown said...

Visiting from Mama Kat's...

She's such a cute dog!

I have a little Maltese (she's more like a cat, really), and she ate a whole bag of Reese's cups. And if she were a little taller, she would get lots more food!

Emily said...

And she looks so sweet, too!

My husband and I are not dog people, but we do like dogs. We were babysitting once for my friend's daughter and had eaten part of a pizza.

Before I could put away the rest of the pizza I had to tend to the little girl. I came back in the kitchen and the pizza was gone.

"You put the pizza away?" My husband never puts anything away. "No." "Well. where'd the heck did it go?" Process of elimination was the dog must have gotten on the kitchen table and lightening quick ate a half of a pizza out of the box.

You are thinking "No big deal", but to us we were amazed as our cats would never do something like that!