I am a bit behind in my stories; its summer time and we have had a lot of company.  On Fathers day, we had a BBQ here for all the fathers in our family, along with the families.  Well, dinner was done and we were all sitting in the family room when we heard a loud noise. My husband got up, and ran to the patio door, and outside, and my son in law and I got up and ran to the bedroom, sure enough Abby had gotten into a drawer that was left open by my father in law and got out a lid to my freshvac containers.  I made it to the bedroom before she had a chance to eat the silicone out of the lid. That in it self was amazing, that we got to her before she destroyed the lid.

A few days later, my husband and I were eating our dinner out on the deck, when again he heard a noise. He got up and went in the house; sure enough Abby had gotten in the sink and had gotten a large freshvac container, and was heading off to her kennel in our room.  There was nothing in the container, I had put it in the sink to wash, but she must of thought there was something good in it.  So my husband retrieved it before she did any damage.

Last Thursday, I was out washing my windows around the deck; I had all my supplies on the table, which included a silicone squeegee. That day was a nightmare, I had to leave while my husband was home for lunch, and so he was in charge of locking up the house until I got home.

I was gone for about 2 hrs, came home, changed my clothes, made sure all my supplies were on the table, and was right in the middle of the windows again, when my husband called, and told me I needed to go back to AT&T, again, to get our phones straightened out, again.  I left in a big hurry and forgot to put up my supplies.  Well, you guessed it, when I walked in the door, there on the floor, was the silicone squeegee, or should I say what was left of it. She had eaten at least half of the thing, and the bad part is it was the one we used in the shower for the glass doors. It was the best squeegee we had ever had.  The next day I was off to find another one at Bed, Bath and Beyond.

Went to one store, and of course they did not have it, I had to go back to the one I found it at, and sure enough they had the same squeegee, thank goodness. 

Yesterday, I looked at Abby and said that you have been such a good girl, that I have not had anything to write about.  Well, all that changed last night.  That will teach me not to say anything to her about being good.

I was getting ready for bed, I turned off my phone, and I always put it in the cupboard with my glasses and books, and then shut the door.  Well, I put my phone in there first and shut the door; at least I thought I shut the door. I left the bedroom to do a couple of things, and tell my husband that I was going to go to bed. When I returned to the bedroom, I about fell over, when I looked, and the cupboard door was wide open, and no phone.

I turned around, and looked in her kennel, and sure enough there was my phone, with the silicone cover gone, yep you guessed it, she ate another cover.  Apparently I did not shut the door tight, and she got in and grabbed my phone.  I only wish I could have seen how she got the door open. I know how she gets the drawers open, with her paw, then with her mouth, it must have been open just enough for her paw to get it open the rest of the way.  Another lesson learned by me, make sure its shut tight.  Abby does a great job training me, don’t you think?

Yesterday, I was going out to the deck to pick up a few things, and I looked out into the yard to see the dogs running, and there in Abby’s mouth was a mouse. I ran out to her and told her to drop it, and of course she took off running with this mouse hanging out of her mouth. I kept yelling at her to drop it, and only after I got her cornered did she drop the mouse, well, she took off for the other end of the yard, and low, and behold there was another dead mouse, she picked up and started running with it in her mouth, so I was yelling at her to drop this one, she did, then ran back to get the other one, which she did, with me running up to her to get her to drop that one again. Well, she did, and off to get the other one again, got her to drop that one and off for the other one, well as you can imagine here I am running back, and forth in the yard between the two dead mice, to keep her from eating them.

I was getting so upset with her, I got her cornered again, without a mouse in her mouth, and told her to sit, at this point she knew she was in big trouble, and she took off for the house. I got her in and locked her doggie door, and waited for my husband to come home to take care of the mice.

 I am glad she got the mice, we don’t need mice in the yard or in the house, but I did not want her to eat them, and that is just what she was planning when I first saw her.  I was upset with her for not listening to me; she was on a mission to get these mice, and was not going to do what I said.  All the time this was going on Maggie knew Abby was in trouble, and she was not going to stick around, she took off for the house, and did not come back out.

I was so upset with her for not listening to me, I did not even pet her the rest of the afternoon, and you know she knew I was upset, as she kept coming to me sitting in front of me, and putting out her paw for me to shake, and I would not comply with her wishes, so she would go off and sulk. This morning I woke up to her snuggled up with me. Of course I have forgiven her, I just hope she is not a mouser now, for me that would not be a good thing. 

My last post, I wrote that Abby had been a good girl for about a week; boy did I speak to soon.  That night, I was reading the newspaper, having a good evening; my husband said he was going into the office for a while.  All of a sudden, I realized that I wanted to show him an email I received that afternoon. I jumped out of my chair to get to the office before he started racing, put the newspaper up so Abby would not get it, and ran to the office, but I forgot about my phone. I caught him just in time, we were enjoying a good laugh at the email, I shut off my computer and went back to the family room to finish reading my paper, and there on the floor was my phone, with the silicone cover gone.  I showed my husband, and he and I agreed that he would contact Otter Box, and that we would pay for a new cover. They have been great in replacing all the covers that Abby has chewed up.  Well, he did contact them, and they replaced my cover at no charge, what a company. My hat is off to them for their great Costumer Service.  A big Thank You.

The next day I did my walking on the treadmill.  We have some three pound weights that I keep in the cup holders on the treadmill, and when I walk I put them on the windowsill next to me until I need them. Well I forgot to put them back, and while I was gone she got one of them, and chewed the rubber handle off the weight.  When I came home I found part of the handle on the floor, and it took me a while to figure out where it came from. I could not believe that she got the weight off the windowsill, and carried it across the room to chew the handle off.

Later that same night, I walked into our bedroom, and I now have a habit of looking in her kennel when I walk by it to make sure she does not have something she, should not have in her kennel. Well, I was shocked when I looked in there.  Here was a box of Kleenex, with the top and side chewed off and Kleenex all over her kennel. I picked it up, and went in and showed my husband, and at that time, I thought it was the box, that sits on a table between our recliners, and that is what I told my husband. I told him I was not sure how she got it as I was sitting right there the whole time.  Well, a bit later, I went back into our room and that is when I realized where she got the box of Kleenex.  She has learned to open the drawers on our nightstands, and this box was in the drawer on my husband’s side of the bed. Never a dull moment in our house with Abby around. She is so sweet and loving, she just gets into trouble now and then mostly, every day!!

You know, its been a little over a week now, and Abby has been a good girl. She has just gotten into a little bit of trouble, nothing big. She has gotten stuff out of the sink, has tried to rip up some of my magazines. I think because the weather has been so nasty, you see, she hates thunderstorms, she hides any place she can, and shakes and shakes, poor thing. She really does break my heart when I see her like that. She really has a hard time on the 4th of July; she hides and shakes for a week or so. Our vet gave us some pills to settle her down a bit during that time.  They do seem to help, but at the same time I hate to see her all drugged up, Abby and I just can’t seem to win.

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All last week I was busy planning and organizing my mother in laws memorial service, and low, and behold Abby was a very good girl all last week. That is until we got to this past Sunday. I had been very tired from the past week, and was not sure what I was going to fix for dinner.  I had a steak in the freezer so I thought that would be good for dinner, so I put it on the BBQ, got a salad made while it was cooking. 

I put the cooked steak on the table for us, I turned by back for just a second to put something on the counter in the kitchen, turned around to find Abby with her feet on the chair and our steak in her mouth.  I yelled at her to drop it, and off she went with steak in her mouth running for the doggie door.  She did drop it before she made it outside, but of course it was on the carpet, full of what ever, and was ruined. 

It’s a good thing that I had some Bratwurst sausages in the fridge, so I was able to save the dinner, thing is I really wanted that steak. Abby has never, ever gotten up on the table like that before, this was a first, so now I know that I have to be careful of what I put on the table, or at least make sure I sit right down to protect my dinner.