Dog Ate My Postage Stamps

If nothing else that should get you to wondering. What does that mean? It means, yes, the dog ate my postage stamps. If you don't already know I have a 10 month old Boxer puppy named Rockie. He is very sweet and very affectionate. He doesn't quite realize he's about 50 lbs. already. He seems to think he's still a little pup that can sit on your lap or lie entirely on top of you at night.

Heck when he stretches out I think he's as long as I am tall. He has some very amusing quirks. He is also like having a toddler around the house. A big one!! He 'eats' or at least chews on, tears up, or throws around anything he can get his hands on. He wears me out just trying to keep after him. If I'm upstairs, he goes downstairs and gets into things.

Now as big as he is, getting into things includes he can reach all the counter tops, the stove, the coffee tables, the bathroom counters, desks, etc. It is very challenging to put things out of his reach. He has twice turned on the stove - once causing a small fire. He managed to ignite the paper towel that was over the brownies sitting on the stove. The brownies were history too because the burner he turned on was underneath them.

My other dog, Penni has taught him all kinds of nice habits. All her BAD habits that is. Penni is very well trained and behaves, she doesn't get in the trash, she doesn't get into things within her reach. She does, however steal shoes and bring them up to my room. If anyone in our house is ever searching for a shoe they know to go to my room. She also pulls the stuffing out of all dog toys and her 'pillow' for her crate. So guess what Rockie has done? Yup, he de-stuffed the pillows in his crate and we've been picking up pillow stuffing throughout the house for a month at least.

I can thank my son's Boxer, Dozer (sadly R.I.P. on 2/13/08) for teaching both dogs to get up on the hot tub even without the steps there; when they were here for Christmas. That enables them to stare into the kitchen window at me and paw the glass when they want back in.

So last night Rockie managed to somehow get a hold of an entire roll of stamps. I suppose the glue tasted good to him or something. But suffice it to say I only found a portion of how many there were. So I'm assuming his poop is going postage paid for the next few days. It's not like there weren't other less valuable things for him to get into. Of course I'd already picked up the cup-o-noodles container he shredded. I'd already closed my daughter's bedroom door so the new Victoria Secrets underwear she got wouldn't go missing. (You don't even want to know what he does with those.) I took away the the drink straw he was chewing up.

Today I thought I was smart and put up a blockade at the top of the stairs so he couldn't go downstairs and get into trouble. He gets in the trash and it gets everywhere. So I put two tall laundry baskets at the top of the stairs blocking the path. Who was I kidding? He managed to somehow scoot one away and clear himself a path. So I'm chasing him around because if I let him be somewhere that I can't see or hear him for more than a couple minutes; there will be some sort of calamity to deal with.

If you pick up something large like a blanket or beach towel he thinks you want to play and he will come up behind you and grab the end of it and start tugging. You have to really be aware if you are going up the stairs so he doesn't pull you back down them.

But postage stamps??? Why? What even prompted him to taste them? They couldn't have had a smell to them, could they? I don't even want to think of the monetary value he chewed up. I'm still debating on whether to go ahead and use some of the toothmarked ones I salvaged or not. Hey, I swear, my dog really did eat it!!!

The really frustrating thing is that he's so cute when he does these things. It's really hard to discipline him. Of course, I'm the mother of five and I've long since learned how to keep from laughing; most of the time. I have to say though, this great big puppy can break through even my defenses. He keeps me laughing; and busy, most of the time.

Thank heaven for crate training or I'd never get a break!!