The Mysterious Rawhide Chew

It's Monday. Ellie and I are back in the office. She's had a pretty quiet morning save for the very welcomed privilege of a dog walker who is new to the office. Ellie and I left at lunch to meet my dad, then we come back.

Nothing out of the ordinary.

I give her a rubber toy filled with a milk bone in the hopes that it will busy Ellie for a bit. She doesn't take to it.

An unknown amount of time passes as I zone in on my work and tune out the world around me. When I have a moment to focus again, I look down at Ellie and notice she's chewing on something. It's a braided rawhide dog chew.
I grab it from her and ask my cubicle neighbor Traca (who has her dog Stella) if it belongs to her. Nope.

The next nearest dog is at least 30 feet away down the hall. Mind you, Ellie is trapped in my cube by a jail baby gate so she can't just wander wily nily.

Where in the world did this thing come from? The magical rawhide fairy?

"I don't know and I don't care. It's yummy!"

Desk Doggy

Ever since we moved to our new office, Ellie has been pretty antsy. The space is much bigger and more open so she can see and hear lots of things going on. I've invited her to join me on my chair, but instead, she uses it as a stair to get onto the desk. Today, I learned that she really enjoys sitting up on the desk and is much quieter!

Ellie sharing my chair

Watching me work

Finding her cozy spot

Santa Claus is comin'...

Santa came early this year for Ellie because today she received her secret Santa gift for the Kitty and Canine Gift Exchange. We participated in this last year and loved it, so we couldn't wait to do it again this year!

Not one, but three packages arrived for Ellie today. So we sat down with the boxes. 

Ellie's eyes glow with excitement

Ellie quickly picked out her favorite - tennis balls!

She starts dragging it away from the pile

At one point, she got the package of balls stuck under the couch.

She drags them across the floor...

Can I have that?

Patiently waiting for mom to take pictures

Thanks so much for our gifts, Jessica and Bodie!

Turkey day and the muffin snatcher

Yesterday we had a lovely Thanksgiving. Ellie was welcome to both houses so she had a long, busy day. Unfortunately the day started off on the wrong foot.

Ellie was in the back seat of the car when BF hears some mouth smacking. He turns around to see her eating something-- the cornbread muffins I had baked and put on the floor of the car!

She was in trouble for the rest of the car ride, but lucky for her it was a holiday so she got off easy.

Ellie got to play lots with BF's brother's dog and they were both spoiled with lots of turkey scraps!

We had a great day!

Ellie's New Ball

Ellie comes to work with me every day. Our next-cubicle neighbor brings her dog Stella who is a small black lab that is good friends with Ellie. We let them play once in a while, but Ellie is a very vocal player.

So for all the rest of the day that Ellie is trapped at my desk, she needs something else to do. I got her this green ball. It's rubbery and bouncy and smells like mint!

What's really fun is that it has holes in it which means I can squeeze some treats in there and it keeps Ellie busy trying to get them out.

Unfortunately while I was writing this post, she chewed out a huge chunk of it because the treats wouldn't come out. *wah wah*

The Tail of the Bad Dog

Look at this face:

Innocent looking, right?

Ellie has not been a good dog lately.

It all started a month or two ago. I noticed that she grabbed a stick of butter from the counter while I was out. I chuckled to myself when imagining how it must have happened, but easily dismissed it.

Fast forward to a week ago.

I had one and a half sticks of butter on the counter (I always keep sticks out for baking). I return home and notice that there is only one stick. Where did the half go? With absolutely no sign of it, I assume Ellie must have eaten it whole, wrapper included.

The next day, I return home to find a mangled stick of butter on the kitchen floor.

Okay. I am learning. It's time to push the butter further back on the counter so that she can't reach it. It's my fault.

Where I used to keep the butter

Unfortunately, I'm so used to keeping the butter in it's place, so I accidentally put it back in its usual spot after baking, and lo and behold, Ellie grabs hold of it again. Only this time, she accompanied her butter lunch with five or six peanut butter cookies for dessert! (Mind you, her tummy is completely fine and I haven't experienced any throwing up or diarrhea issues during any of these incidents) And yes, the cookies were my fault for leaving them on the coffee table (d'oh!).

Finally this morning I get smart and consciously push the butter further back on the counter before leaving for the gym. This is where I put it:

I get back to the gym to find a whole stick with teeth marks and this on the floor:

So now the room temperature butter lives on top of the fridge and this little doggy is in big trouble.

Happy belated Halloween

Busy life lately! I have been meaning to get up photos from my Hawaii vacation but still haven't gotten around to it. In the meantime, Ellie and I both dressed up for Halloween at work yesterday! She repeated her bull rider costume while I was a ceiling fan (pun)! :)