Paper or plastic?

When you have pets, you always walk the fine line between love and hate. 

There's nothing like the nudge of a snout under your hand as your dog asks for a scratch behind her ears.  Velvet fur, so snuggly.

There's nothing like tripping over your dog as he lays down directly behind you with the stealth of a commando as you stand at the kitchen counter making dinner.  Doh!

Max is growing really fast.  He's huge in comparison to the little pup I brought home five months ago.  I really need to get on his obedience training, because I suspect I've been lulled into a false sense of security in regards to his behavior.  It's only a matter of time....before ____.

He has decided lately that chewing is fun.  So, so, fun.  Being a lab means being a chewer, and I was prepared for it. 

I wasn't prepared for him to chew thru two garden hoses, one the day after I bought it. "You owe me ten bucks, dog,"  I said when I discovered the stump of the hose still attached to the faucet this last time.  (Pat, pat on the back for not springing for a more $ one!)

He's an I'm-bored-you-left-me chewer, I've noticed, so unfortunately for him, I can't leave him out of the crate if I'm not home, not even for a few minutes. 

Barbie can testify to that.

She's given up her hands and a huge chunk of hair to the cause.

Obi-Wan can testify to it.

He lost his head, a leg, an arm, and both hands.  (I call him our 'shark attack victim.')

I found pieces of pink plastic; springy, circular pink plastic in the living room last night as I was doing the evening routine before bed of "if they don't see me throw it out, then they won't miss it."  What is that, I wondered, mentally cataloguing all the springy pink plastic things in the house.

I found out this morning, it's one of their dog toys....minus a nub.

It doesn't stop at plastic either.  Both dogs are particularly fond of paper products.  Paper towels, kleenex, <ugh> whatever they find in the kids' bathroom trashcan, it's all fair game. 

Sometimes, it looks like it snowed in the living room.

As I open the back door, and issue a command they are becoming more and more familiar with--"OUT!"-- I have to wonder.

The next time we are scooping up dog-doo in the backyard, will I find paper, or plastic?