Criminal Elements

Saturday night we had our first serious misdeed since Morgan has come to join our family.  We arrived home from an evening of shopping for a birthday gift for my dad to find that a bag of trash had been strewn across the kitchen and living room floors.  I must regretfully inform you that there are no photos of this disaster that left our living room looking like some kind if ground zero scenario, but Mr. Taleteller was decidedly unamused by the incident and my suggestion of taking a few photos for posterity were met with an angry glower.

You may be thinking to yourselves that having an eighteen-month-old puppy in the house often leads to such episodes.  However, the fact that she was in the crate at the time of the crime proves her innocent of any wrongdoing.  That leaves the usual suspects to chose from.  This time, there wasn't any doubt.  Lilac was clearly the culprit.

It has been three or four years since Lilac has pulled any of her garbage heists, but when she was first living with us, she was a mistress of stealth and cunning and the garbage can was most always the scene of her crime.  The most infamous incident involved a family chili cookoff where there were lots of test cups of different pots of chili discarded in our trash can.  It was not a pretty sight.  Still, in recent years, she has seemed to have given up the inclination. 

There were signs earlier in the day that foreshadowed the evening's events.  She was particularly interested in the bag that carried the teriyaki chicken sandwich that had carried home my lunch that day.  There was one sly pass through the kitchen where she returned to the living room with an empty Milkbones box.  Still, all seemed forgotten by the time we left for town hours later.  Lilac was fast asleep in front of her fan, with everything arranged perfectly to her satisfaction. 

How easily we were decieved!  We returned home to find that not only had she dug through to find the Milkbones box that had been hidden in the bottom, she also snacked on the styrofoam box that had once housed my sandwich.  Topping things off, she drug the garbage bag all the way across the living room and left it beside her bed.  I suppose that was a good spot to lay by the fan while she went through the bag's contents in search of some delectable morsel that she figured was hidden inside.

I'm not sure who got the last laugh in this scenario.  There wasn't anything in the bag besides good smells.  However, Lilac didn't have to put all the garbage back in the bag.  You can rest assured that the garbage bags were stored outside in the back hallway Monday morning before garbage day, though!