Curiosity snagged the dog

Danny went poking his nose around the fridge yesterday. He must have smelt something interesting, cos he pushed his paw into the narrow space under the fridge, trying to get at God-knows-what.

With his short attention span, something else caught his eye five seconds later and he turned towards it. In doing so, he shifted the angle of his paw, effectively catching it.

When he realised he was stuck, he panicked and yelped to high heaven. It was so shrill and so piercing that Rhoda came running up from the basement and mom can rushing in from the living room.

They found him flat on the floor with one paw under the fridge and the others waving frantically in an effort to get loose. Mom, as usual, joined him in panicking. Remember how she thought he had sliced off his tongue the last time? Well, this time she thought he had been electrocuted.

Using a combination of chair and broomstick (you're not supposed to touch something with a live current), she tried to manouvre him out from under the fridge. All this time, Danny was madly wriggling away. Between the two, they must have done something right and his paw popped out.

Rhoda was relieved. Mom was relieved. But the happiest camper was Danny. Finally free, he headed straight for the tissue box and ripped it apart.

Spot the Danny

Can you see where the dog ends and the carpet begins?

The carrot and the stick - Part II

As magnificent as peanut-butter-stuffed Kong is in keeping him busy and quiet, Danny still bores quite easily. That's where the stick comes in.

No, I'm not talking about the cane. (Although that reminds me, he has chewed up the fifth and final cane and I need to buy some more. Anyone know a wholesaler?) I'm talking about the muzzle.

Yes, I know I have tried the muzzle before but this is a different muzzle. The previous one was a very forgiving cage muzzle which gave him some room to manoeuvre. Our friend figured out how to get it off within a week and promptly chewed it to bits.

He sensed its vulnerability and would look at us with reproachful eyes whenever we put it on (see below). If you look closely at the top of the muzzle, you'll see where we stapled the damaged portion together. A couple of days after this shot, it was bye-bye muzzle.

I didn't bother to replace it, but after a nerve-shattering day of Danny's non-stop high pitched yelps and my neighbours' (so-far) polite comments of his noise, I decided to give the muzzle another try.

This time, I went in search of the one they use at the vet, you know, the one that wraps around the mouth.

Well, it's been a few weeks now, and Dan-boy can't get it off. And trust me he tried. He rubbed it against walls, carpeting, the floor, my leg,....but it didn't even budge. Now, when we put it on, he goes all limp. Place him on the floor and he'll slump down in a corner. You can place him on your lap and pat him as you browse through the paper.

Note: The dog below is fully awake.

It's like his mouth is a generator or something!

Anyway, he seems to be getting the message. When he is overly noisy or destructive, his mouth privileges get revoked. When we remove the muzzle, he becomes the quietest dog ever. If we're lucky, it even lasts the whole day.

So far, so good.