Oh, my...

I did not sleep well last night and stayed up reading quite a while, thus I slept in late this morning. Grant was up early and gone, as usual. At 9:30, Guinness woke me up. Then he ran off to the lower level. I went down to see what was so exciting down there. While I was away this past week, Grant indulged in a gift to himself – a black suede, wide-brimmed Tilley hat which was still in its large box on the sofa downstairs. The box was tipped over and empty. From near the laundry room, Guinness dashed past me, hat in mouth, and whizzed upstairs. At first, even with a treat in my hand, he would not let me catch him. When I finally had the hat, I told him, “Go get in your crate.” He raced around the main level a couple of times, then ran to his crate. The hat is destroyed, of course. He had had at least an hour or two to work on it. I went downstairs to assess any other damage. Grant had purchased a hefty suede brush to care for his hat. Guinness had enjoyed the wooden handle tremendously. Wood chips, bristles, and pieces of black suede were all over the floor. I pondered how to break the news to Grant. I waited until he called me. After I finished the story, Grant jovially said, “No problem! It’s insured.”

“What?!”

“They told me that the hat is fully insured for one year whether is it stolen, run over by a car, or falls apart. After the first year, it is insured for 50% of its value.”

So I cleaned up the mess downstairs, ran the vacuum, and let Guinness out of his crate. As I donned clothing to take him outside on this cold, rainy day, Guinness attempted to steal my shoe. Upon returning inside, I heard him prancing around the dining room. He had grabbed a plastic container out of the kitchen sink.