Canteloupe

A couple Fridays ago, we went out to see a movie after dinner. We were away from the house about 3 hours. When we came home, we found that Mochi decided not to sleep or play with his toys. Instead, he managed to grab one of the canvas bags on the kitchen table, bring it to the floor (and later his ottoman), and gnaw on the contents. What was inside? Why, a whole canteloupe.

No, he didn't eat the entire thing. He managed instead to eat a quarter of it, including the rind. Tracy was worried that he would get sick, and I, being a responsible parent, couldn't stop laughing. In the end, Mochi was fine. He didn't seem to have any symptoms of an upset stomach, though he did pee a lot the next day. Hmmmm

Unfortunately, I was laughing so much I didn't think to take a picture. You can imagine what we saw by picking up a ball/canteloupe and pretend that the the top left quadrant has been removed.

Kitchen courier

I was on the couch this evening and was too lazy to get up to throw a napkin away. Mochi happened to be nearby, so I tucked the napkin in his collar and told him to visit Tracy in the kitchen. My plan worked - he went to the kitchen, and Tracy threw the napkin away. Not without yelling at me for "exploiting" the dog first, though. :)

Zinc-y

The latest incident wasn't my fault this time, it was Tracy's! In her rush to leave Friday morning, she forgot to close the office door. Mochi found Tracy's work bag and tore into the four zinc lozenges nestled inside. Zinc apparently is bad for dogs, but only in sufficiently large quantities. But since Mochi is a little guy, we didn't know how much is considered bad . Just in case, we called our vet, who directed us to animal poison control (who knew there was such a thing?). We paid $60 for a consult with their on call vet. Since Mochi wasn't acting abnormally (he was bouncing off the walls like he normally does when we get home), the vet said to simply keep an eye on him for the next day or so. Fortunately, Mochi was fine.

So lesson learned - don't trust Tracy with closing doors. No, wait, I think the lesson is that Mochi is still a butthead who will find his way into anything.

Still chewing...

Last night, I left Mochi at home for about 30 minutes to run a couple errands. When I returned, I found multiple items in the family room floor:

1. Tracy's softball mitt
2. both of my indoor slippers
3. a torn plastic bag
4. a bottle of sunscreen (which was previously in the plastic bag)
5. Tracy's sun visor
   

All of these items were in the living room couch, so we figure he had to make five trips. Fortunately, it looks like the only casualties were the plastic bag and my slippers. I found a lot of small plastic bits on the floor, so I'm hoping he didn't eat too many of them. And my slippers needed to be replaced anyway. :)

Freedom!

Today is day two of our trial run of giving Mochi run of (most of) the house. Yesterday's attempt was somewhat successful with no visible evidence of Mochi chewing/maiming/destroying anything that's not his (though Giraffe lost his tag in a suspected standoff between him and Mochi).

However, Mochi doesn't seem to understand - or care - that the hall runner is not for pooing on. We placed one potty pad directly in front of the hall runner. Butthead had to walk over it to go on the hall runner. So today we have barricaded the hallway and we'll see what ensues.

Butthead: 1
Hall runner: -5

Separation anxiety?

In an earlier post, I mentioned that Mochi stayed at Jenny and Joey's house while we went to Vegas. We later found out that soon after we left, Mochi threw up a few times, and he proceeded to throw up a few more times the next couple of days. It could have been related to the rawhides Jenny gave him each day, but Joey had been eating those before he arrived and didn't have any problems. We suspect his unease was due to some separation anxiety. He got better as our trip ended, and he had no problems when we brought him back home. Our sensitive little guy...

Monkey - part 3

Mochi loves Monkey. So when we found Monkey II had an inoperable head/neck separation, we knew we had to get him a new monkey. Now, Monkey I lasted about six weeks and Monkey II lasted about half as long. Enter Monkey III.

Within the first couple of days Mommy noticed that Monkey III was shedding at nearly the same pace as Mochi. That's when Mommy discovered Mochi had chewed straight through Monkey's knot, liberating a cluster of fringe. Within a week Mochi Monkey III was sporting a maimed left leg, one strand disentwined from the others. Soon he figured out how to untwist the other two strands. Daddy had to amputate...which meant that the right arm when with it (Monkey's arms and legs are contralaterally joined). So now Monkey III hobbles around with his two remaining limbs resembling arms now. His squeaker fell out today...which means Monkey III will soon be laid to final rest in the depths of the silver cannister with the foot-activated hatch. Rest in peace, Monkey III. Mommy fears for (the already purchased) Monkey IV's fate.

Monkey III lived approximately a week and a half in our house. He is survived by his successor, Monkey IV. Monkey IV's life expectancy is 4-5 days if current trends continue.