Samba Strikes Again

Last Sunday Samba destroyed one of my houseplants and spread it's pieces and most of the dirt around the kitchen.

On Monday evening after last call, I put the four girls in their crates and gave them their bedtime cookies. Then I picked up six cookies for the other dogs that sleep upstairs. Before heading to the bedroom, I stopped in the office to shut down my computer. I set the six cookies on the table next to the computer. When I finished I started upstairs, then half way up I remembered the cookies. I ran back down but I caught Samba with her front feet on the table finishing off the fifth cookie. Only one was left.

On Tuesday morning Norma Jean finished obedience school and received a graduation gift from the school. It was a small green gift bag. Inside were some coupons and a sample bag of dog food along with several little bags of treats. The whole thing was tied together with cute pawprint ribbon and tied into the bow was a rawhide chew stick.

My dogs are not allowed to have rawhide chews, pigs ears or hooves or bully sticks. There are two reasons for this.  Two of the pack, Tsar and Sky, have some rather expensive dental work in their mouths and I don't want it damaged by hard chewing and secondly, years ago a vet warned me about intestinal blockages caused by large pieces of rawhide. I decided then and there to not allow any of my future dogs to indulge.

I would probably have disposed of the chew stick, but for the time being I  put the entire gift bag on the kitchen counter.

Thursday was Cinco de Mayo and Rob and I usually celebrate it. We met in Acapulco, Mexico and were married in Mexico, New York, so we decided to have a Mexican lunch at a new restaurant that had opened in town. The meal was wonderful and when we arrived home, the dogs met us at the garage door. I walked upstairs and found another mess.

Samba had gotten the gift bag off the kitchen counter and torn it open. She ate the chew stick, ripped open the dog food sample bag and ate all the dog food and opened all four treat bags and devoured all the treats. This is all that was left.

Apparently, that little snack didn't satisfy her enormous steroid driven appetite so she went looking for more.  Further back on the counter she found this canister filled with dog biscuits. She chewed the lid open and ate all the contents.

I'm sure she would have gone back for even more treats if we hadn't arrived home when we did. Here you can see the remains of the gift bag and the empty canister.

Samba is a very vocal dog and when I told her she was bad, she explained to me that I am starving her and she needs more food. If I won't provide it, she'll do it herself. I didn't understand the exact words, but there was no mistake about the meaning.

So what to do to prevent more of these incidents. I moved everything edible from the counter to either the pantry, the higher cabinets or the refrigerator. I'm sure you're thinking that takes care of the problem. I know it isn't a solution at all.

When we first moved into this house all the doors had this type of handle.

Tsar and Samba quickly learned how to open all the doors as well as how to turn light switches on and off. See what I'm up against? We change the door handles on all the doors leading outside and the doors to the bedroom, office and the downstairs room leading to the garage to this type of knob that the dogs couldn't open.

Samba can open the door to the pantry if she's motivated enough. She can also open the refrigerator in the garage. The one in the kitchen is heavier and I don't think she can open it without help. But there is always Noah, who is his mama's little helper and would probably assist her if she asked. She's also been known to push kitchen chairs over to the counter in order to reach whatever she wants. That, I guess, could include the upper cabinets.

So now when I leave the house I'm never quite sure what Samba will do to fill the time till I return. It's an interesting situation. I'm not trying to starve her and I don't want her getting into anything dangerous, but her steroid clouded brain can only think about finding food.