Little Scamps

The mug shots: Lollia and Peppy. The Charge: Disorderly Conduct

While Wyatt and I were out getting groceries and finishing up Christmas shopping yesterday, two little dogs embarked on a glorious, if dubious, raid.  Lollia and Peppy found a package of candy which my husband had purchased for my Christmas present and asked my son to hide in his room. Not just any candy, mind you, but a custom-packed half-pound box of my favorite See's Candies rum nougats. 

I can only imagine the thrill my happy pomeranians had snarfing down the forbidden delicacies. Through one tiny paw-sized hole in the box, they pried out every piece and ate the lot, as well as the two free sample chocolates from the bottom of the bag.

When Wyatt and I got home and the deed was discovered, there was instant consternation. Wyatt was chagrined to find he'd left the box within reach of the dogs, my husband was annoyed that his effort to surprise me was spoiled, and I was horrified knowing that chocolate in sufficient quantities can be lethal to dogs. By that time Peppy and Lollia were also beginning to rue their great adventure because they were feeling the effects of their dangerous over-indulgence. 

A quick call to the veterinarian calmed my fears about the potential effects of the chocolate ingestion. They would each have had to have eaten close to 10 ounces of milk chocolate to be in dire straits. (If it had been dark chocolate, it might have been a different story.) The rest of the day was spent cleaning up mess after mess as the two miscreants threw up repeatedly and acted suitably sheepish.

Good Wickham had spent the morning entertaining himself outside in the yard like a sensible fellow and so he avoided both the bellyache and the blame. He enjoyed chomping down a raw carrot snack that the other two were too miserable to want to eat.

Darling Wickham

Now in spite of their occasional indiscretions and the resultant consequences, I love my dogs dearly, so I spent the afternoon and evening sewing toys for them, and also for the cats. The catnip toys are marginally respectable-looking, but the dog toys are... umm... well...

Maybe I just better let you see for yourself. First, the cat toys:

I made two fur catnip mice and two long tubes of pillow ticking. There's about a tablespoon of catnip in each baffled section of the tube.

Now for the dog toys.

If you're thinking these look like dismembered parts of a strange furry termite/cat creature, you're not far wrong. I couldn't figure out how to join the head to the body without resorting to hand-sewing, so I opted to just make them into floppy dangly pieces. Don't you feel better about your own crafting abilities now?

I had no patterns and just made these up as I went along, and they're a motley lot. Fortunately the dogs will be more interested in the materials and functions of the toys than their aesthetic value so I'm in the clear. I used up my four remaining squeakers and scraps of crinkle cellophane for sound appeal, and for the thrill of the hunt, I made the outer layers from a rabbit pelt and some fur coat scraps I've had stashed in my craft box for several months. These were garage sale finds I've been keeping for just this purpose. 

The fur family will have a wonderful time tearing into these on Christmas morning--maybe they'll even have as much fun with them as they did wolfing down the contraband chocolates today.  I hope so, anyway.