Happy Birthday, Lola Bug

By now, many of you have undoubtedly heard of the book "Marley and Me" about a couple and their dog, Marley - who proved to be a near-unholy terror. Well, we have our own Marley in this house, and her name is Lola.

Lola was born one year ago this week, and was adopted by our family in August at the age of ten weeks. We had been thinking of getting another dog since we had moved to a new house with a larger yard, and I really wanted a puppy. When we adopted our older dog Bart at twelve weeks, he was already crate trained, and about 7/10ths of the way house trained. He had exactly two accidents in the house, and with a few exceptions did as he was told. We thought we were brilliant dog trainers. It turns out what we really were was lucky. Our experience with Lola was different, to say the least. We got our first taste of what we were in for on her very first night home. Just after we put her to bed, the little terror rocked the crate back and forth until she loosened the bolts holding the top half onto the bottom half and wriggled out throught the crack she had created. All the while, she had battled at the metal front gate with such force that I feared she would hurt herself - so I took the door off, screwed the top on tight, and turned the open door to face the wall. No such luck - she had wiggled out within five minutes. I don't remember what we did next, but eventually, she went to sleep.

She was immediately fearless when it came to Bart, jumping on him, biting at him and antagonizing him at all hours of the day and night.

He was a good puppy brother, and put up with a surprising amount of harassment. She also snuggled up to him - sometimes laying right on top:

This of course was fun to watch, but it did not make up for the steady stream of destruction that began when she arrived and continues to this day. The tally so far includes:

1. 2 large area rugs (one dotted with ink from a chewed pen - the other is slowly but surely losing its tape trim)
2. 3 small kitchen rugs
3. countless dog beds
4. God only knows how many plants in the yard
5. 2 down pillows (it's amazing how much down is in one of those things!)
6. 2 pairs of expensive sunglasses
7. several wrapped christmas presents
8. Bailey's buddha baby onesie
9. 2 dental appliances
10. 1 pair of prescription eye glasses
11. 3 bras
12. a gift certificate (to a store called "Lucky Dog")
13. a party invitation that we never got to read
14. 4 athletic shoe insoles
15. 3 pairs of ugg slippers
16. 2 pairs of shoes (not counting the ones we still wear despite the chew marks.)

She's also chewed off the corner of my husband's wallet and gnawed on the legs of our new dining room table, the baseboards, the coffee table and the leg of a chair in the living room. Just about every roll of toilet paper in the house has a bite out of it. Sometimes I think that she would destroy everything in this house given enough time.

She is also an inveterate food-stealer and counter-surfer. I once walked into the kitchen to see her lying on her bed with a steak that she had managed to steal while my husband wasn't looking. She stole two chocolate cupcakes I made for my husband's birthday and inhaled them, paper and all, prompting fears we'd have to go to the emergency vet during the party, and once ate nearly a whole stick of butter. She has improved, but to this day she is famous for sneaking licks of the cocktail snacks within her reach (especially the Trader Joe's Cheesesticks.)

My husband and I are talking about starting a pool - what will Lola destroy next. I have come to accept that nothing is permanent, and it's foolish to become attached to material things. I wish I could say that this was a result of some sort of philosophical enlightment on my part, but really it's just because I'm afraid they may not make it through the second year.

Still, we love the little bugger, and all of the cute things she does almost make up for the damage. So Cheers to the crazy puppy (who's almost not a puppy anymore!)

And many more.

p.s. If you're a dog lover, be sure to check out weekend dog blogging at Sweetnicks!