Kristy Hoover's Blog

Our 85 lb golden retriever Rudy loves chewing on stuffed chew toys. He ignores his teething bones and his rubber balls, but will sit and chew at anything with filler and loves pulling out all the fluff – inevitably making my living room look like a white Christmas. After seeing the movie Marley and Me, I was so happy to know that our Rudy was a calm and fun loving two year old retriever who was nothing like Marley. And then one day, Rudy changed my mind. He found an oversized, expensive chew toy.

I came home from work two days after watching the movie and found with my daughter sitting at the computer doing homework and Rudy running around the house like normal, excited that I’m home. But in the corner of my eye was white fluff and yellow foam all over my living room (I’m thinking – I’ve never bought a dog toy made with foam?). Yellow foam = not good. Upon further investigation, I learned Rudy ate the sofa.

Ok, so it wasn’t that bad. Luckily, he pulled out the cushion and only chewed the inside part of the cushion, not the outside edge. So, with a little maneuvering, I was able to put the couch back together with minimal damage. Unfortunately, he didn’t forget that there was a fun foam filled pillow sitting there and he was just waiting for the next move. Another day came, another day with a living room covered in sofa foam. So I grabbed the cayenne pepper and sprinkled just a dash of pepper to the foam to deter him from eating it again. He left it alone, he didn’t like the pepper.

Several months later, the curious Rudy was back. With a full bowl of water, he attacked the sofa yet again. This time chewing a huge chunk off the yellow foam and was busted having a grand time tossing his foam treasures in the air for a solitude game of catch. This time, I thought it may be wise to try another ingredient from the spice cabinet. The first thing I see? Tabasco sauce.

So here is where my weekend came to a screeching halt. While spicing up the side panel of the sofa cushion with some added flavor, I forgot that foam has a tendency to bounce. So I’m sprinkling away, rubbing in the hot sauce with my fingers and them BAM! Tabasco sauce comes springing off the foam and splashes into my eye. Let me tell you – this was not a pleasant scene. I’m now instinctively rubbing my eyes (I forgot there was Tabasco sauce on both of my hands), I’m using my hands to cup water from the kitchen sink, but now BOTH of my eyes are burning because I forgot to wash my hands first and my eyelids are ON FIRE! My eye is burning, my eyelids are now burning, and I’m yelling yet laughing at Rudy because this was his fault. After about 10 minutes and with clean hands, the pain finally began to go away. Another 45 minutes with ice packs on my eyes did the trick.

So, let’s recap here the lessons learned from this event:

1. Don’t assume your dog forgot where he left his fun toy. He’s just waiting for the right time to take advantage of you being out of the room.
2. Don’t go putting Tabasco in your eye. Enough said.
3. It’s probably best to wear goggles when putting Tabasco sauce on foam or anything that has a tendency to spring back at you.
4. Putting Tabasco on your sofa makes the entire house smell somewhat spicy for several weeks.
5. My dog may be a relative of Marley after all. But we love him anyways.

What lessons have you learned from your pet? Do you have a similar pet story to share?