There are famous gangsters, real and fictional embedded in the American psyche. Baby Face Nelson, Al Capone, The Godfather, Mack the Knife and one little known local gangster - Sadie the Tooth. Or, 'The Tooth' as she is known to her pals.
This gangster makes The Godfather look like a choir boy. A dangerous and violent chewer, she is ruthless and remorseless. She has no conscience. And, no regard for the personal property of others.
'The Tooth', the supreme chewer amongst the world's most desctructive chewers - nothing is safe left within reach - and some things placed well out of reach. She particularly likes to chew things that belong to her Daddy.
Thus far, she's chewed two pairs of bedroom slippers, a new pair of work gloves, a pair of brown dress loafers, two pairs of reading glasses, one prescription, one non. And, she shreds books and magazines with amazing precision as well as eating a wide variety of other things not originally intended as object de cuisine.
She can deconstruct a pine cone at light speed and regularly annihilates titanium strength nylabones. You know, the ones labeled, "for aggressive chewers" and intended for fully grown pit bulls and mastiffs.
Stuffed puppy toys, [the $8.99 learning variety!] don't last long enough for me to finish unloading the groceries from the car.
At the tender age of 20 weeks she chewed her way out of a travel crate half-way between Alabama and Texas. However, all of this pales by comparison with what greeted us on our return from dining out one night a few weeks ago.
After more than four years and five different contractors, the remodeling of our house is finally finished. I love our house, and one of the things I love about it the most, is the fact that our bedroom storage is built in. We each have cabinets and drawers and shelves for our clothes, specifically designed for our needs - and this is in addition to our closets.
In the bottom of these lovely cottage cabinet units are the puppy crates. Or as we refer to them, puppy boxes. One puppy box is built into Dennis's set of cabinets and one is built into mine. I designed it this way so that we weren't obliged to have unsightly space eating wire crates sitting out in our bedroom floor.
Each of the built-in crates are roomy. Each pup has a soft snuggly bed, and in addition, 'The Tooth' has a regular sized bed pillow in hers. Both crates lock with a child-proof latch. Well, both crates USED to lock with a child-proof latch.
Anyone who has ever had kids is familiar with these safety devices. They are designed to keep curious little ones out of cabinets and drawers. The type we used to secure the puppy crates were the upturned, spring loaded, hook variety. You must press down on the spring loaded hook with the door partially opened in order to release it. Otherwise the door to the crate will only open about two inches.
On the night of her greatest crime, we put both pups in their respective boxes and went into town for some dinner. We were only gone for about an hour, since we just went to the local cafe.
Imagine our utter astonishment, upon arriving back home, to be greeted by Sadie. Grinning from ear to ear, little tail wagging a million miles an hour, so glad to see us! Immediate investigation showed Catfish sound asleep in his box, and that Sadie had CHEWED HER LATCH OFF.
Little did I realize when I bought the child-proof latches that because they are made from a type of hard plastic THEY CAN BE CHEWED!
Her latch, it's now just a stump on a spring.......
Sadie the Tooth.
The Biography Channel called, they're thinking of including her in their next mobsters and gangsters segment.
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