Of Dogs and Shoes

     As those of you have met her know, Maya’s new dog Grace can be a handful.  She is a beautiful mixed breed, either Australian shepherd or border collie but extremely smart and full of energy.  Among other things, she likes to climb up on my bed and look out the back window where she can see squirrels, birds, etc. during parts of the day.  I’m fine with that since she is curious and constantly needs things to occupy her.  Naturally , when we leave, we lock up certain rooms so that she cannot get at food (last night she ended up eating half a loaf of bread that we left on the kitchen table just before dinner) or other things she might ruin when we go out, but leave other rooms open so she is not feeling caged in.  Sunday, we were out and she had taken a number of slippers that Lora had gotten me over the years, and chewed them up.  I took the ones that survived and put them into a duffel back to keep her out.  Yesterday when I returned home from being out for a few minutes, I saw that she had taken all of my shoes out of the closet, put them up on the bed and totally chewed up a pair of sandals.  Though I hated to close her out of my room since she enjoys being there, I thought enough is enough, so this morning (since the door to my room won’t  completely close), I put a doorstop under the door and was working on the computer.  A short while later, she was lying beside me and I saw that she was chewing on one of Maya’s tennis shoes.  I took it away from her and then when I went around the corner to my room, I found that she had pulled out the doorstop and Maya’s other tennis shoe was sitting on my bed with one of the laces eaten off!   

       I’m still looking for the doorstop.