Persistence

Last night, Guinness was driving me crazy with his reverse retrieves.

• Grant left a large envelope at home to be picked up by someone today. Guinness took it off his desk which was totally unexpected. He rarely steals something of that size. It now is slightly wrinkled on one corner with teeth scratches – just a friendly touch.
• I had just scanned the instructions for my Christmas ice lantern, as water splashes are deteriorating the paper with each lantern I make. I placed it on the kitchen counter before taking it downstairs. Guinness helped me to decide to put it away immediately.
• A Tupperware bowl from the sink took a trip around the house.
• He found one of Grant’s shoes somewhere. Not sure where it came from.
• But he knew, and was running around with the mate to it.
• From the bar, he pulled off a pretty package from Grant’s sister of holiday wine bottle corks. I can’t blame him for wanting that.
• I tried setting out Christmas fingertip towels in the powder room for guests. That isn’t going to work. I have already decided that there will be no stuffed holiday animals lining the stairway this year.
• I left a pair of Crocs at the garage door. Foolish.

This morning, after an hour of running around with other dogs, and constant ploys to grab my mittens off my hands plus Marley’s mother’s mittens, he came home and scooched under the garage door as it was closing. He ran out of sight. I called for him to come before deciding which way to go. He reappeared, running out of the neighbor’s garage with a recyclable container in his mouth.

No sooner had we come in the house than I heard a crackling noise from the kitchen. I had bought some potpourri yesterday. I realized last night that I was not sure where I had placed it after bringing my purchases into the house. He found it still in its bag in the basket on the kitchen counter where I thought it would be unobtrusive to him. He must have smelled it out, and he really liked it. With treats in hand, it is pretty easy to regain his stolen object. Not this time. He had to be chased around the house a couple of times. Since he was playing hard to get, I grabbed my camera to record the moment. He easily relented.

Next, I heard him prancing around and knew he had found another treasure: my boot which had been drying in the bathroom. I had forgotten to close the door. Once I appeared, he jumped on my bed and readily relinquished it, then settled for a nap – finally.