thanks to gnawing puppy

By MICHELLE WILSON

Published Oct. 7, 1999

A couple of months ago, I introduced you to my new furry child – Jasmine the Labrador Retriever puppy.

Since I do not yet have any human children, this is my first experience at parenting. I think I’m lucky to be getting this trial period.

My husband Jay and I have spent sleepless nights encouraging Jasmine to sleep through the night and training her not to bark too much. Then there was the fun of potty training. Now our baby dog is teething.

I have heard horror stories about chewing labs. Labs chewing up furniture, shoes and the siding on the house.

Jay says as a boy his labs chewed up the dog house he made for them. I have heard of labs who chew the casts off their broken legs. But I have never heard tales of the cookbook-chewing kind of lab that lives at my house.

You see, I collect cookbooks. Many of my favorites were received as wedding and house warming gifts when we moved to Troy a year ago.

I came home from work one day last week and to my horror, several cookbooks were shredded on the kitchen floor. There was the coffee drink recipes, the cookbook from my favorite bed and breakfast and the Auburn Extension System’s book on food preparation.

Like bread crumbs on a forest floor, the trail of debris led to Jasmine’s cage.

I cleaned up the mess and vowed to move my cookbooks to a higher shelf. But I forgot my frustration as soon as I looked into my puppy’s brown eyes. I also forgot to move the remaining cookbooks.

The senseless slaughter of cookbooks was repeated again Wednesday while I was away.

You may have heard the saying, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

Jasmine feels shamed I am sure, and so do I now. Guess what I will do today as soon as I get home – find a new place to store my cook books.

Michelle Wilson is a staff writer for The Messenger.