The Pepper Predicament - Part 1: Pepper, Destroyer of Kitchens

So to help you go through this the same way we did, I have to start with the Wednesday before everything went down.

Hubby and I went to the zoo for Sunset Zoofari (something our zoo does in the summer where the zoo closes like normal at 5 but reopens from 6-9). When we go places, we tend to leave Maxine in the living room and Pepper in the kitchen. See, Pepper is an old man and has some separation anxiety. Put those together and you tend to come home to a lot of piss and shit. Literally. So while Maxine is free to roam the (carpeted) living room, Pepper is confined to the (linoleum) kitchen. We close the bedroom and bathroom doors, leave out a few pee pads, give him toys and treats to curb some of his chewing, and we have a nice bed in there for him to rest on. 

So on this particular Wednesday, to help Pepper's separation anxiety (and partly due to laziness), we kept BOTH the pups in the kitchen. We thought Pepper might feel better if Maxine was there to hang out with. Well, that and they hadn't finished eating yet, so rather than waiting or forcing Maxine to go without the rest of her dinner, we just put the baby gate up and left. When we got home, we realized this may have been a mistake:

You know you love the '70s floor.

Yes, we came home to a disaster zone. The garbage and recycling were both tipped over (a first in the almost 6 months we've had Pepper). The floor was littered with boxes, paper, coffee grounds, food containers, you name it. An old shoe was used as a chew toy (not a huge deal, but still). Pepper (and possibly Maxine, who knows?) had peed everywhere (both on and off the pads) and took what I call a walking dump (where he takes a shit but can't squeeze everything out in one go, so he keeps trying and in the process ends up wandering a bit, leaving little dollops of crap all over the place). Since Pepper is a tiny little thing (17 pounds) and not always the most active dog in the world, we figured this was a collaboration of sorts. There was, after all, a motivational component to this: a bone from the pork Hubby had made the weekend before was in the trash, along with remnants of aluminum foil that no doubt smelled (and probably tasted) like tasty, forbidden meat. Oi.

The following Monday we went to dinner with a friend. This time we returned to our normally scheduled programming and left Pepper in the kitchen and Maxine in the living room. When we got home, we expected to clean up the standard P&S package that Pepper so thoughtfully leaves for us on a regular basis. Instead, we came home to an almost identical scene. This time the recycling bin stayed upright, but the garbage was down, there was P&S everywhere (including the bed, which we have now just thrown away), it was gross. It took awhile to come to terms with the fact that this little dog (who even on his hind lefts isn't as tall as the bin) had created such chaos. Then we realized there had been beef trimmings in the trash. If there is one thing in this world that motivates Pepper, it's food. And apparently he simply could not resist the temptation any longer. We gave him the opportunity, and he ran with it. Totally our bad.

Going forward, we decided to put the trash can in the bathroom (with the door closed, of course). That decision was not a hard one to make (although I'm still pulling for just getting a bigger, heavier trash can, because one of these times we WILL forget to move it, I just know it), and it has been working pretty well for us. Problem solved, right?

Come on, you know better than that.

To be continued...

wtf, 2012?

From what I can gather via Facebook (the source of all things in my life), a lot of people were really hoping 2012 was going to be a great year.  Personally, I didn't really have a bad 2011.  I got good grades in school.  Had my first anniversary with the hubs.  Had a house, a job, clothing, and food.  Things were pretty good.

But this year has started out with major suckage!  Well, maybe I'm exaggerating, but seriously?  This is lame.

• I've already had a cold this year.  That knocked me down for 3 damn days.  Ugh.
• Puppers had/has her extra butt hole (see previous post).
• Hubby had to work from 9 AM until about 2 AM the other day.  He then had to wake up and go back to work at 9 AM and wound up staying until almost 8 PM.  
• Also, Hubby thinks he's getting my cold, which is not cool.
• Oh, and my classes are already getting the best of me!  Well, Forensic Science is, anyway.  Yikes, man.  Just yikes.
• Bestie's cat is not doing so well, and they think her time is soon to come.  :-(
• K's first week back teaching was, apparently, less than stellar and actually resulted in her singing karaoke.  Sober.  If you knew her, you'd be stunned.
• Annnnd, I just found out that my dad fell down some stairs last Monday and cracked a rib in the process.  He had to take this week off of work (which he said wasn't the worst thing in the world), and he says it hurts to laugh (which he considers the worst part of the whole thing).

That's not to say 2012 is completely without hope.  Hubby got a raise (yay!) and in less than 2 months we'll be at the happiest place on Earth with my bestie and her hubs!!  WOOOO!!!  I also got invited to join Phi Kappa Phi (a national honor society with decently high standards), so that's pretty awesome, too!  

Let's just hope that the year starts producing more good than bad.  After all, if the world really does end in December, I'd rather have fun getting there, wouldn't you?