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!

The Hairy Eyeball

Saturday afternoon, Mr.Taleteller found himself in the doghouse.  The whole thing was an accident, nobody was to blame, but it was clear that Bunny felt differently.  He went to change the DVD we were watching and took a step back.  His foot happened to step on Bunny's tail.  A greyhound scream of death was issued.  Many apologies followed.

After that, Bunny ran over and hopped up on the couch, clearly believing that I could make it better or at least keep her safe.  She refused to look at Mr. Taleteller at that point.  This resulted in him making many entreaties to her to look at him.  She turned her adoring gaze at me and made her feelings very obvious.  A short time later, she moved over to the dog bed, having decided that I was too shifty to lay on for very long.

Once she laid on the dog bed, Mr. Taleteller, in a last effort to redeem himself in her amber eyes, covered her up with is favorite quilt.  She did finally look at him, but it was with the hairiest eyeball I have seen in a long time.  I predict that Mr. Taleteller will be feeling a case of guilt for a long time.  It's funny how easily they can manipulate our emotions!