GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY

Would the guilty party please speak up…
or rather, bark.

THE SUSPECTS:

#1 Prince, our male black Standard Poodle. Age, six.

#2 Hammie, our newest addition, a one year old male Collie mix we adopted from Collie Rescue of Greater Illinois, May 2010.

#3 Piglet, the oldest, yet smallest of the bunch and only female. A black Pug. Age, eight.

Just like children, each one is unique with their own personality, bringing something different to the family.

Piglet, the only females, is stubborn yet very loving. She kind of does her own thing but loves to snuggle which makes up for her lack of obedience. My eldest daughter, six year old at the time, wanted to name her Pig, due to the double curl in her tail. My husband intervened, giving her the name, Piglet…although we often call her, Pig.

Prince, he’s a very tall, muscular Standard Poodle. He came to us from a very sad situation, all skin and bones with not one, but two kinds of worms. One of them only comes from flea infested areas. Yeah, I know. He’s a bit skittish at times but very obedient, unlike his Pug sister. Every time I take him for a walk, we go past a water tower. He does his best to escape to the other side of the street, terrified of the thing. I have no doubt the original owner, who I believe to have been running a puppy mill in her basement, lived close to a water tower. What other reason would a dog be terrified of a water tower?

Then we come to Hammie. After fostering thirteen dogs for Collie Rescue, Hammie came along. My nine year old had wanted her own dog for some time…but three dogs. Yikes. Anyway, Hammie came into our home and within a day my daughter laid on the floor, her arms wrapped around his neck, tears rolling down her cheeks, and looked up at me and said, “This is my dog!” How could we resist? Adn he was such an amazingly sweet dog.

Our family went to Six Flags Great American for the first time in years, the other day. We were gone for about ten hours. I was concerned about the dogs, mainly Hammie, but not too concerned because they were locked in what we call “the dog’s room”. A safe place that if any accidents occur, no big deal. There really isn’t much in there for them to get into, or destroy.

When we returned home, all was well…kind of. That is except for the dog bed!

So, who looks like the guilty one?

The huge Poodle off to the left?

The comfortable looking sable Collie mix in the middle of the green fluff?

Or the black little Pug, semi hiding behind the Collie?

Now mind you, Hammie has destroyed a couple of other dog beds in the short time we’ve had him, so I pretty much knew who the culprit was. He tends to get a little nervous when we’ve gone for long hours. We found that out the hard way, after the end of our couch was destroyed, along with the edge of a cabinet.

So, when I decided to write about this little fiasco, a funny thing happened. I dumped all the bedding back onto the floor like we found it that night. I then called all the dogs into the room. Prince was very reluctant. I had to literally drag him in and place him in his position. Hammie came pretty willingly, though once I tried to coax him to the middle of the pile of stuffing, he was reluctant, even though we had decided not to punish him for what we thought was his doing. Then there was Piglet, and with her stubborn self, I had to pick her up and bring her to the room. I placed her in the mist of it all, and after several attempts, was able to get the picture.


When I released them, Prince was out of there in a flash. Hammie and Piglet were a different story. Hammie kind of hung around, a little confused. Piglet on the other hand, started attacking the green fluff! She shook her head from side to side with the stuff hanging out of her mouth.

I think I’m getting a better picture of what went on while we were gone. Hammie started to chew and rip the bed. As soon as stuffing started to fly, Piglet joined in on the fun, tossing it here and there. Meanwhile, Prince sat nervously shaking in the corner, wondering if he too would get the blame.

"It was the Pig and Ham!" Prince would bark.

Do we love them any less for this little fiasco… no. Just like kids, I’m sure we’ll be laughing about it one day.