Growing a Pumpkin Patch is Hard Work.

Dance, Monkey! Dance!

Bless his heart.

He did it again.  Some of y'all may recall that a few months ago, our poor, slightly accident prone dog ripped a toenail clean off.  Last week, he did it again. 

Thankfully, this time the nail wasn't completely torn off - it was just cracked, but it's pitiful all the same.

Carnage!

A few months ago, Dutch decided that, for some reason, our area rugs were delicious, especially the one by the front door and the one in the kitchen. Yum. We brag on our dog all the time because he was never a destructive chewer - even when he was a wee teething puppy, he never went after anything that wasn't his. Recently, though, all bets are off. In addition to nibbling the rug binding, he also went for my favorite Merrell flip flops and - this was the worst of all - my adorable pink Dr. Scholl's sandals. Mercifully, the Dr. Scholl's attack happened a few days before Labor Day, so it's not like I was going to be wearing them a whole lot more this year, but STILL. They were really cute sandals and I miss them even now.

Initially, I had a theory that Dutch was going after my stuff because I was pregnant and he sensed that something big was up. And also, you apparently smell different to your dog when you're pregnant because of hormones and such, so maybe my shoes were offensive to him. Anyway - that was my theory. I think that Chris was actually a little amused by all this. I also suspect that he never liked my pink Dr. Scholl's sandals in the first place. But, one day, Dutch went after Chris's Teva sandals, and anyone who knows my husband knows that his Teva sandals are a very sacred part of his wardrobe. So, my theory on Dutch resenting the pregnancy went out the window.

ANYWAY. While the rug by the front door is still presentable, the rug in the kitchen had to go, especially because we had a lot of family coming in town this past weekend and I didn't want our guests to think that I made it a habit to have raggedy rugs in my kitchen. And let me just say that I LOVED the rug that we had in the kitchen. It was kind of like this rug, except the diamonds were all in the middle of the rig and the fleur-di-lis were on a plain green background around the edge. It was a great rug, and it was also quite delicious.

So, last weekend, I saw that Linens & Things not only had some decent rugs on sale, they also had one of those handy 20% off coupons, so I bought a fresh new rug for the kitchen. And that rug, apparently, was also delicious, as Dutch snacked on it this afternoon.

Note from the photo that it's not like we're denying him any treats or anything like that - as you can see, both his Kong and his spider were right there when he ate the rug. And while we can't really punish him for eating the rug since we didn't catch him in the act, Dutch knows he did something wrong because whatever the crime, be it a rug or an adorable pink sandal, he shrinks into a corner when you confront him with the evidence. If anyone out there has any advice, we're up for it. In the meantime, I'm just hoping he doesn't go for one of the good rugs in the hallway, the living room, or the dining room, because that would only mean one thing: C-R-A-T-E.

You kiss your mother with that mouth?

A website about our family wouldn't be complete without Dutch. Dutch and Chris are obviously very close, and I like to call this photo, "The love that knows no name."

We're confident that Dutch and the baby will be fast friends. He's great with kids, and thanks to some of the children in the neighborhood, he has developed a strong association between babies in strollers and Goldfish. We are lucky that the babies in the neighborhood (and their parents) don't mind when Dutch moves in to snag the Goldfish, and we've made a mental note to always have plenty of Goldfish handy once the baby comes, as our very smart dog has come to the logical conclusion that babies = Goldfish.