Sneaky Dog

My dog's motto seems to be that no matter what you've done wrong, always try to make it look like the someone else did it.  When we had 2 dogs, I never knew which one to blame.  Usually, I thought Duke was the favored smart one so it must have been Augie Doggie who did "it".  Now that my other dog is no longer with us, it has become painfully apparent that Duke is not that innocent.  In his defense, although he can open doors, he can't unlock them.  Someone is NOT letting him out during the day. Nevertheless, when I come home to a mess, the dog likes to act like he didn't do it.  If he had a tail (unfortunately cropped shortly after birth), I'm sure he'd point it accusingly at one of the kids in a he/she did it effort to deflect the blame.

This is a very shrewd animal I live with.  When I am knitting and subsequently ignoring him, he will stomp his big feet on the floor and bark.  If I continue to ignore him, he'll begin kicking my knitting bag all over the family room.  This assures him the cookie he is usually demanding.  I think it was him who mysteriously pulled all of my toothpick sized needles (4 of them!) out of the socks I knit a couple of weeks ago.  I just don't have proof.  It took me an hour to fix the  mess.

In an effort to get our home ready to show (not for sale, but other purposes) we had the carpets cleaned yesterday.  When I came home from work, I found someone had had an accident on the newly cleaned carpeting.  Duke attempted to indicate to me that one of the kids had committed the crime.  It didn't work, but I'm too wise to scold a dog who thinks he is smarter than me (or not caught in the act). 

This morning was a quiet one.  Just me, Rach and Duke.  Rachel had her breakfast then I took her to the bathroom to give her a shower.  I left the dishes on the table intending to clear it once Rachel was soaking.  When I came back into the kitchen, I could see an empty bowl, a trail of milk and Duke looking the picture of innocence..  He was sitting on the sofa looking bored with a muzzle coated in white and bits of shredded wheat.  Liar, liar.