Monday Mischief: Blanket Thief

Petal stole a blanket the other morning and had a grand ol' time running around with it in her mouth.

I had fun putting it over her head and then hiding from her and recording her reaction through a mirror. ;)

Ah yes, and Lassie had fun barking through the whole thing.

We're joining the Monday Mischief Blog hop today. This Blog Hop is brought to you by Alfie’s Blog, Snoopy’s Dog Blog, and My Brown Newfies.

Monday Mischief: Early Present Opening

Petal snuck into the Forbidden Room today and ripped open one of her gifts.
She couldn't resist any longer.
It's Christmas Eve, Petal.
You couldn't wait one more day?

Merry Christmas everyone!
♥

Monday Mischief: Stuck

Today, just like any other day, Petal was barking out the window at the neighbor dogs across the street. She was getting excited, as she usually does, and she had her front paws on the windowsill.
She got more and more excited until she hopped up into the windowsill entirely. She does this on occasion and usually it's no big deal.

However, with it being Christmas time, we have a Christmas tree right in front of the window.
Which means Petal couldn't find an easy way to get back down from the windowsill.


"Help! I'm stuck!"
"I know you think this is funny, but could you please stop laughing and help me get out of here?"

Oh, this crazy dog.

This is not the first time Petal has gotten herself stuck in such an odd place.
About a week and a half after my surgery, on the same day we got our first snow, Petal got herself stuck under the couch. Now our couches don't stand very far off the ground. Just far enough for Petal to fit while lying on her side. So it took an incredible amount of talent from her to get herself stuck under there.
To this day I still have no idea how she managed this.
I was resting on the couch when I heard the sound of dog claws scrapping across our laminate floors. Nothing unusual, really, but I looked around anyway. Lassie was asleep on the floor and Petal was... where was she?
I looked behind the couch, where she likes to sleep, but she wasn't there. I called for her and heard more scratching on the floor. I thought it was crazy, and very unlikely, but I looked under the couch anyway and saw this little face:

 
"Oh, hey, could I get a little help here, please?"

She wasn't scared or hurt, just... well, stuck. All she could do was kick her legs and look pathetic.
My Dad and brother came to the rescue and lifted the couch up just high enough for me to grab Petal's harness (lucky she was wearing that) and drag her out from underneath the couch. She got up, shook herself off, and then went about as if nothing had ever happened.

Her mischief never fails to make me giggle.
Though I will admit that her mischief, at times, causes me great stress.
Just be careful, my crazy dog.

Monday Mischief: Chewed Pencil Edition

This morning, as I walked over to the bookshelf where I had left my glass of water, I looked down and spotted this in Petal's bed:

... What does this say about me?
Heh. Probably nothing good.
But allow me to defend myself. I was, to be fair, asleep when she did this.
Normally I can hear mischief from miles away, even while I'm sleeping, and I fly out of bed to put an end to it.
Seriously, I should have a cape.
Unfortunately my cold has weakened my supernatural abilities and I had no idea she even had access to this pencil until after she got bored with it.

I wonder what the AKC would say about this...


Look! There's even Collie hairs sticking out of it! Ha!

Let's see what Petal has to say about her pencil chewing...

"The cat did it."

The cat?!

"You lying little fleabag! Well! I've never been more insulted in my entire life!"

Nice try, Petal, but the evidence was found in your bed.

I'm still wondering where she found this pencil.
I had a few of them in my purse, from when the local pet store (now closed! :( darn it!) was offering free training classes for the Canine Good Citizen test (which Lassie took and passed);

"I don't chew on pencils."

they were giving out these pencils. I guess they felt they had too many pencils, because she gave me a whole handful of them. I don't know why. She probably looked at me and thought, "She's probably a student, she could use a few thousand pencils!"
Well I'm not a student and I've had these pencils for a year now and haven't so much as sharpened them.
I only have one, misplaced, pencil sharpener and dozens of markers.
So of course I use the markers.

Anyway.

I wish I could say this was the first time Petal ever chewed on a pencil, but that is not so. She has raided our pencil box once before, so we're careful to keep the lid on it.
She never swallows them though, thank goodness. Crayons, on the other hand...
Yeah, I'm looking at you! Miss Rainbow Poop!


"Crayons are good."

Monday Mischief: Mud, mud, mud

We're still getting rained on here in Utah. More than usual it seems like.

It's definitely not like Washington rain or anything, but still.

Ella and Petal have been having a blast in the mud while Lassie has been avoiding it like it was the flu.

Today I almost wished Petal and Ella would avoid it as well as Lassie does.

But alas, they did not. Instead they went and found some deep (up to Ella's chest) and very, very muddy water.

And yes, they took several dips into that water.

You'll have to excuse the quality of the photos. They were taken with a cell phone. Not too bad for a cell phone though!

This picture does not do Ella's dirty-self any justice.
See how her chest appears to be a peachish color? Her neck and white feet looked the same.
She had a lovely layer of mud alll over herself.
But no one, no one, can outdo Petal.


"Do I have a little something on my face?"

Yeah.
She had to have a bath.
With shampoo and everything (Ella only needed a quick rinse).
I think she might still be a little peachy-colored here and there.

Monday Mischief: Chewy flip-flop

Look at what I pulled away from a very happy pup this morning.

A flip-flop, they're those irresistibly chewy things that the humans wear on their feet in the summer time.
They're the shoes that we buy cheap because we know they won't last for long around here.
They're the shoes that many dogs have a hard time resisting.
Can't say I blame them, they are very squishy and they probably feel great to chew on.



I came out of the bathroom, dressed and ready for our early morning walk, and found Petal with dad's flip-flop in her mouth.
Uh oh.
We went straight to the dollar store to pick up another pair after our walk.
So dad will never know.
Until he reads this blog post.
Then we'll have to change our names and leave the country.
Just kidding, Dad. ;P


P.S. No pieces were swallowed. ;)

What's the opposite of Monday Mischief?

This is the dogs' toy box,

And this is Petal with one of their many toys,


"My FAVORITE toy, to be precise."


Today, instead of getting into mischief, Petal did something that was the very opposite of mischief.
She put the toy she is holding in the picture above in her toy box.
She put it away!


"I did NOT put it away! As I've told you a million times, I accidentally DROPPED it in there! It's not the same as putting it away!"


Could it be true?
Could Petal be turning into a good dog?
A neat freak even?


*sigh* "It—was—an—ACCIDENT! Don't listen to her, dogs! I still create plenty of mischief, believe me!"


You're a good dog, Petal.
Those words may make you cringe, but they are nevertheless true.
;)

P.S. Petal would like all you canines to know that she barked in the cat's ear this morning. She barked and barked until he got annoyed and left the couch, then she took his spot; which means she's still a mischief maker.
(With a good dog streak.)
(Don't tell her I said that.)

Monday Mischief: Gross!

Guess what Ella did today...

Yes. Yes she did.
It was smelly.
And my fault, really.
She asked to go out before I loaded them all up into the car for their morning walk, but her "I need to go outside" signal is pretty darn similar to her "I'm super excited to go ride in the car, please open the front door right this instant" signal. So I got confused and assumed she was just excited to go.
I won't be assuming that anymore.
:P

Monday Mischief: Chips

Ella snagged a bag of chips yesterday afternoon and finished them off.*



At least they were all natural, right?


"Mmmm, yummy."


*The bag was completely empty, she merely enjoyed the crumbs at the bottom. She was also supervised the entire time. ;)

Monday Mischief: Skunked

Last week I signed my Monday Mischief post with the words: Hope your dogs cause much avoid mischief today! ;)

I shouldn't have done this.

Why?

Because right after that I loaded up the car with three eager-for-a-run dogs and took them to the trail with my Mom and someone found a dead skunk. And someone decided to roll in this dead skunk, to ensure that our Monday was filled with plenty of mischief.

This is the mischief maker and skunk-perfume wearer:

Yup. Ella decided that simply sniffing the dead skunk as Petal was doing was not enough. Oh no. Rolling in it would be much, much better. Then the humans can get a good sniff of it, too!

Ella had to sit in the trunk on the way home and we rolled all the windows down. Lassie and Petal went straight into the house while Ella went straight into the dog run outside.
I hoped on the computer and found this recipe for de-skunking your dog:

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup baking soda
• 1 tsp liquid dish soap
• 1 qt. 3% hydrogen peroxide solution

(found here)
I was skeptical, but desperate, so I tried it.



I mixed everything up, grabbed some gloves and an old towel and set to work.


Scrub-a-dub-dub!



Ella hates to be cold and I felt like such a monster for bathing her with the cold water of the hose, but thankfully it was a hot day and she warmed back up and dried quickly.




All clean and de-skunked!
That recipe actually worked!

I would also like to sing praises to Dublin Dog for their All Style No Stink collars (the collar Ella wears and the only collar I will ever buy for Miss Destructive). Ella's collar was the only thing that didn't smell horribly on this dead skunk loving dog. Any other collar would've been tossed in the trash after this little adventure.

P.S. Ella's Dublin Dog collar is over two years old and has been through all sorts of crazy dog antics and it's still going strong! This is a dog that would go through collars every two months or less.
And no, I was not asked nor paid to say these things about Dublin Dog. I just love their collars and enjoy sharing products that I've found useful. ;)

Monday Mischief: Another way the table comes in handy...

The kitchen table, as we all know, comes in handy when it comes time for a snack.

But it also comes in handy when you see this guy:

Out in the yard, guarding the humans while they water plants, while you're still stuck in the house!


"HEY! YOU FORGOT ME!"


When simply standing in the window does not attract enough attention to you, that's when the table comes in...


"Aha! Bet you noticed me now, didn't ya?!"


Petal wasn't the only one up to mischief over the weekend, our internet has been too, deciding to work only when it wants to. Which was every couple of hours or so and only for five-ten seconds at a time.
Whatever, internet. It's not as though we rely on you or anything.

Hope your dogs cause much avoid mischief today! ;)

Monday Mischief: Watermelon is Greatly Enjoyed by All.

Last Monday, when reporting on some mischief from the previous Monday, I mentioned that I caught Petal in the act of something mischievous just hours after Lassie got into the trash.

First of all, Petal has a bad habit of jumping up onto the kitchen table. Rotten, I know. She mostly does it for attention and just stands there waiting for me to come and tell her to get down. If I ignore her, she'll eventually get down on her own and leave the kitchen, looking all dejected and unloved as she flops down on the floor. That's what she does... unless there is half a watermelon on the table.
Which brings me to my second point: I did not leave the watermelon out.
But I did hear someone happily munching on it and then realized that Petal wasn't in sight because she was busy doing this...


"Mmmm, I love when the humans leave tasty snacks out!"



"It's so sweet of them."

And yes, yes I did go and get my camera before I told her to get down.


"Look, they even left a spoon in here for me. How thoughtful! Wish they would've remembered I don't have opposable thumbs though... "

Little stinker!
I don't know what it was about April 30th, but that was the day of great mischief!

Now let's hope that my family doesn't see this blog post. Because questions like, "Isn't that the watermelon I ate later that evening, Marquie?" might arise.

And the answer to that would have to be, "It might've been, brother. It might've been."

For the squeamish (and incase my brother does, indeed, read this): don't worry! I scraped out all the contaminated watermelon and cut off the edges. Plus it's been like two weeks and you're still alive, brother! So it's all good! ;]

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend and Mother's Day!

Monday Mischief: Trash Dog

Last Monday, for Monday Mischief, I posted about Lassie and Petal's fondness for bottle crushing. Literally minutes after I published that blog post, this scene awaited me in the kitchen and I thought, "Well, at least I have something for next week!"

Are you wondering who possibly could've made this mess?
Or are you pretty sure it was Petal?


"Who? Me?"


Because Petal is a fair guess. She is the youngest and by far the most rambunctious and mischievous. She also loves to search the kitchen for scraps. So it could've been Petal.
Except for one thing...



Our trash can has a lid on it and Petal doesn't know how to open it.
So scratch Petal off the list.

Is Ella your next guess?


"Innocent little me? In the trash?"


Another fair guess. Ella has a knack for trouble. We've seen her digging plenty of times and she causes plenty of trouble around the house. So it could've been Ella.
But... did you notice what was on the lid of the trash can pictured above?
Is that... Collie hair?
"But surely it wasn't Lassie!" You say?


Ignore that innocent looking face! It is really the look of guilt!

Oh, but it was. It was definitely Lassie who dug around in the trash, tossing things he didn't like onto the floor until he found what his nose had been searching for all along: an empty cat food can.
You don't believe me? You don't believe that that well mannered and well behaved boy would make such a mess or risk getting his hair dirty by digging in the trash?

Well, lucky for you, I have further photographic evidence. Because that adorable bad dog had another go at it after I cleaned everything up.



Mischievous little stinker.


But I have to say, it is one of the most hilarious and oddly endearing things that he does. I don't know if it's the way he lifts the lid open so effortlessly with his nose or the way the lid rests over his head as he digs for treasures. Or maybe it's the guilty look combined with the "Oh crap!" look that he gets on his face when you catch him in the act.

P.S. Hours after the trash can incident, I found Petal in the act of something very mischievous, but we'll save that for another Monday. ;]