Jake update - dead animals - muddy kids - gnawed valuables

Crystal is moving into a new house. This weekend we spent the majority of our time painting and cleaning and moving. There was an entire team of people putting down flooring, putting up blinds, and all of the other stuff that you do when you move into anew house. Many of these are friends and family, so they brought along their kids. Jake really liked that. I’m not always a big fan of other people’s kids, but Jake generally likes them if they run and yell and don’t pull his tale too much. He is a good dog with kids.

Early in the day Jake and the kids discovered the pond behind the house and played in the mud and muck. Actually I think one of the kids had stepped out of a flip flop shoe and was a little too slow in retrieving it. Jake was quicker. After all, he is a retriever. Never the less the kid was in hot pursuit but Jake had about 3 steps on him and was thoroughly enjoying this game of chase. The chase ended in the pond with the shoe being taken back (I’m sure that a tug-a-war went on because he likes that game too). Anyway, Jake and little kid and the flip flop in question were hosed off in the front yard sometime around mid morning.

The next surprise was somewhere around noon.

The next door neighbor’s kids had left a stuffed animal in the yard. Jake found it and being a retriever, he retrieved it. Now take into consideration that this particular stuffed animal was in the shape of a mallard duck (green head, yellow feet and all). You should also take into consideration that Jake had probably been outside chewing on this for a good half hour or so before deciding that it should be retrieved to his master.

Now let me set the picture for you.
Several women of varying age are inside the house straitening items, touching up paint, cleaning, etc. and in walks Jake carrying a wet and apparently DEAD and rotting animal.
I’ll leave the rest to your imagination. But Jake was not welcome in the house for a while.

Now let us fast forward to Tuesday afternoon.

We step out for a bite of lunch and figure that Jake has earned the right to stay out of the kennel for a little while because he has been well behaved. That was a mistake. I offer into evidence the photograph below which depicts 8 separate chewed items within a 4 foot radius.

1. Jeffers pet catalog torn into shreds one size too large for the vacuum to pick up.
2. My favorite flip flops. Minus the flip, and great deal of the flop has been chewed away as well.
3. Half eaten copy of “Coastal Living” Magazine
4. Small dust broom – chewed
5. Foot stool – now with chewed up corner
6. Collectors edition cup from the Olympic Horse Park near Atlanta, GA. - chewed
7. Gnawed corner leg of my Grandmother’s coffee table that I spent a week lovingly restoring and refinishing
8. Chewed corner of Oriental Rug