The chewer has a busy day

Now, you may think that big tree branch is the most important thing in this picture, but it is not. The important thing is the red ring on the couch. See that? It's a hard rubber ring studded with little nobs--ribbed for her pleasure, so to speak. It rolls across the floor, it works as a tug if she proffers it, it's a chewie--it's all things to a dog! I bought it yesterday, but I can't get Rosie interested in it.

Nor is she particularly interested in the stick I bought ("made of part real wood! doesn't splinter!") or, other than the first enthusiastic half-hour, the Antlerz (made of real deer antler), or the Kong Frisbee, or any of the other things I loaded up my basket with at PetCo. When the cashier said, $100, I hardly blinked. My girl is teething! She needs these things! (For the record: I also bought a new collar, and training treats, and a few other things. But still, I spent a lot on chewies.)

The Antlerz, as I mentioned, was a brief, heady success. She settled down in her bed and gnawed away at it for a good half hour. After a while, however, she stalked off and abandoned it and now won't give it the time of day. I'll have to put it up somewhere so that she can't scorn it. Some day I will take it out again and she can discover it all over again.

Yesterday was a busy day for Our Favorite Chewer. Another dog park visit, where she ran around a lot and met a dog named Boozer, and a 90-minute evening walk where she surely expended a lot of energy trying to go after squirrels. We expended a lot of energy, too: She hops forward in strong little bursts, trying to make forward progress, while either Doug or I strain to hold her back. All the while she makes these high-pitched whining screams that sound as though we might be torturing her. It's very embarassing. No other dog in our neighborhood does this.

In between the dog park and the evening walk she was outside of her kennel for most of the day, running around in the yard, leaping on Riley's head, bouncing up onto my lap quite suddenly and trying to get at the bowl of popcorn I was enjoying. But mostly, she was chewing on branches.

Yes, $100 worth of chewies and what she was most interested in were the branches that Doug trimmed back from the saplings that are sprouting, unwanted, in the narrow alley between our garage and our fence. We had kept that alley blocked off all summer while Rosie was small enough to sneak out of the yard that way, but on Friday night Doug unblocked it and chopped down the little trees that had had months to grow.

Rosie discovered them almost immediately, and dragged one into the house early yesterday morning. My facebook status update, at 5:30 a.m., read as follows:

Rosie barked to be let out at 5:30 a.m. Came back inside dragging a branch longer than she is, and thick with leaves; it rustled like the skirt of a ballgown as it dragged behind her. All was amusing until she decided to bring it into the bed with Doug, who was still sleeping. Suffice to say he is no longer asleep.

We took that one away from her after awhile, and picked up all of the leaves that it had dropped as she dragged it through every room of the house, and it was shortly after that that I made my Petco run. 

Last night, she barked to be let out and within seconds this was the scene:

Yep. She found the branch's brother.

I like Riley in this picture; the way he is turned steadfastly away says, "I don't want to get involved," even as he has crept halfway down the stairs to see what commotion his sister is up to now.

This morning found her contentedly chewing away on the front porch at something small and mysterious and hidden inside her mouth. After some prying open of the jaws and rooting around at the back of the tongue, we found a small bit of black plastic. I have no idea what it is, but I think Petco could make a lot of money selling them.