The Benefits of Knitting While Owning A Chewing Dog

Bella catches new toy.

Bella destroys most of her toys. At four, she's slowed down on that destruction only a little. I've spent more money on toys for her in four years than I spent on our last two dogs over a 29 year span.

I heard about a company called Bionics that sounded really cool and got Bellie a toy from them. (Friends gave her two more). If she destroyed them, they'd send me a new one. If she destroyed the second one, she could become a life-long tester. How could you argue with that? Problem is, Bella doesn't like their toys. She rarely even mouths them. So I continue to buy toys knowing their life span will be short.

Sputnik minus some niks.

I recently got her a new toy that looks (looked?) like a Sputnik. Now you might ask, "What does this all have to do with knitting? Good question!

Future knitting needle stops.

If you are at all into knitting, you know one of the foibles is your project might fall off the needles when put down for the night. Usually this is because your project is too big for the length of the needles and no matter how much you push it back to one side, it o-o-z-e-s to the other and just drops into space. This probably elicits a lot of colorful language from you the next time you pick it up to work on it. Hence, the invention of needle stops. (Of course, you can jam the needles into a ball of yarn and hope for the best, but this isn't always successful.) Those little point protectors don't fit all needles, so you need different sizes and after a while, you realize you are spending money on something that you shouldn't. (I've also twisted rubber bands 80,000 times around the tip. Tedious.)

Back to Bella's great chewing capacity. She is working on chewing off all the sputnik extensions at just the right length. I'm collecting them and they will become point protectors/needle stops. I'll just drill different sized holes into the chewed end. Oh the joy! This isn't money wasted on toys; I'm saving money in knitting!

Loose Dog—"Oh! He's friendly!"

This kind of situation would not have been an issue for me had we not been blessed with Lucy. Lucy was aggressive with any dog who approached her—unless it was a puppy or a dog she knew. Lucy was always on a leash, not so other dogs, though some were on equally unmanageable flexi-leads. Somehow, dog owners assume that because their dog is non-aggressive, all will be well, but they don't consider the other dog. Lucy was beautifully behaved on a leash—unless charged by another dog.

I can't tell you the number of times people allowed their dog to zoom in our direction with the shout, "Oh (s)he's friendly!" (The flexi-lead walkers were almost always oblivious to the location of their dog.) No one ever bothered to ask if my dog was friendly. Usually, I could maneuver Luce away or yell to the owner to grab their dog before things got out of hand—but not always. A fight would occur and who was considered the guilty owner? I always felt horrible that Lucy was in a situation in which she clearly felt threatened. Her psyche was so fragile and I did my utmost to avoid those scenarios.

So I was quite taken aback the other day while walking mild-mannered Bella. A loose Golden Retriever, hackles raised, came rushing at us from behind some shrubs. What did the owners yell? "Oh, he's friendly!" In fact, there was no problem because Bella reacts beautifully in those kinds of circumstances, giving just the right doggie "I am not boss" signals. But that's besides the point as I don't want my girl to have to be in those situations. I had no time to extricate her or avoid the oncoming Golden. Had it been Lucy, there would have been no question of a fight.

The owners were walking their dog off leash. Mistake number one. Two, they assumed because their dog was friendly (although his approach was anything but), there would be no issue. Three, they made no attempt at calling their dog to them, but let the situation unfold. Trying to be as calm as possible, I explained why it was very unsafe for them to allow their dog to do that. They looked at me like the problem was mine. I feel very, very sorry for their pup. He may not be so lucky the next time he charges a dog.

Garbage Hound

We have a dilemma. There is a member of our family who doesn't pay attention to Bella and open doors. Bella normally stays close, although I wouldn't put money on that always being that way. However, a neighbor buries his garbage—shallowly. I am not sure why he doesn't use the recycling we have available, but he doesn't and Bella is delighted. She has non-discriminatory taste buds and the appetite of an elephant.

So when unsaid family member isn't paying attention, Bella crosses the alley to the delicious pit of rotting scraps and gorges. And then gets sick. At home. This could be funny, but isn't. And it could be deadly, but thank heavens, hasn't been so far. She has upchucked all sorts of undefinables, which have included chicken bones. Unsaid family member didn't seem to get the seriousness of this and luckily our neighbor is unaware of the rat issue and hasn't used poison.

I think this errant family member, after the last binge-eating repercussion, may finally realize the seriousness of what his inattention brings about. I hope so. I love Bella and want her to live to a ripe old age, but cannot be here 24/7 monitoring the both of them. This is a big issue.