A trip to the bank!
"No matter how many precautions you take to protect the worldly goods that you've gathered around you, it is difficult to determine the outcome of leaving a young border terrier alone to its own devices" .
Border terriers are by nature friendly dogs and in constant need of companionship. Having owned one such dog for some twelve months, we decided that she needed the company of one of her own. Accordingly we acquired a new pup and went through the routine of newspapers on the floor and other precautions to keep the youngster in her rightful place.
We were fortunate in that our ‘L’ shaped kitchen/dining area allowed us to erect a barricade using an old door laid on its side to separate the carpeted dining area from the kitchen area with its cleanable floor covering.
To avoid any risk of the door falling over, the tumble drier was strategically placed to support the door whilst still being in a useable position.
Life went on quite normally for a while - not that life is ever normal with a mini-mutt in the house. Then, one morning, while the house was briefly unoccupied by us humans, the inquisitive border mind sprang into action - triggered by a keen nose and a healthy appetite.
A jar containing those ‘good girl’ rewards, brimming with tasty biscuits, was placed out of site on the kitchen worktop. Out of site, however, is not out of mind.
On reflection, it can only have been a sheer stroke of luck that, in the effort to jump as high as possible to reach the free meal, the young “gannet” managed to hook her paws onto the lip of the tumble-drier door and in her downward motion cleverly lowered the front loading door down to head height.
The result of this maneuver was a suitably constructed set of steps: step one onto the door of the drier, step two onto the top of the drier and step three onto the top of the kitchen worktop. And the reward was very filling!!!
We had little doubt that, during this escapade, the older bitch was in a stressed state in the corner knowing full well that this series of events were not going to be well received when Mom comes home.
The puppy, although now well fed and well pleased with herself, was not done yet.
Kitchen surfaces are generally a harbour for all sorts of items worthy of investigation, and the little mite was not going to miss this opportunity.
The police are always telling us “watch out there’s a thief about” and in general we do just that, always keeping money and valuables out of site. On this day however an envelope containing £40 in paper money had been left out ready to pay a bill that day.
The horror of coming home to find shredded currency littering the kitchen floor was soon to be outweighed by the embarrassment of watching a bank teller performing a re-assembly job with the aid of a roll of sellotape - with a queue of people behind me.
The moral - never underestimate canine talent - and keep hidden those things you value!
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