The worst

In addition to growing with freakish speed and having almost no more toileting accidents in the house, Dionne once again has resumed sleeping through the night. She went from 10:15 p.m. last night to 6:15 yesterday. But as if to remind us that she is still a very young puppy, she also did the worst thing that perhaps any of our CCI pups has ever done.

I had gone out to coffee with a friend. But somehow my departure slipped Steve's mind, and at some point he assumed Dionne was upstairs in my office under my supervision. She was up there all right. But, in my absence, she apparently stood up at my desk and helped herself to a pen. Then she settled down for a good chew. Apparently she moved around at several points. We know this because when Steve finally discovered what was going on, the light tan carpet in my office was stained with black ink in half a dozen places.

Steve made a valiant attempt to blot it up. He sprayed all the spots with carpet cleaning foam. He scrubbed and scrubbed (clearly feeling guilty that this disaster had unfolded on his watch.) For a brief while, we thought these efforts worked. But when the foam dried, ugly dark smudges still showed, as obvious as if someone had come up to scuff around on the rug after shuffling through the ashes of a campfire.

It must be said that the rug is more than 16 years old. It's been peed and vomited on and blood-spotted by literally generations of puppies. Always before, however, with the aid of in-house chemicals and regular visits from our neighborhood carpet cleaners, we were able to restore it to semi-respectability. Still we would have conceded some time ago that it was time to replace it -- except that when we finally  do that, the project will require lugging out of the room all my bulging file cabinets and a large couch. Worse still, we'll have to disassemble my 14-feet-long desk, and store it somewhere until the new flooring goes in.

"Maybe we should just resign ourself to living in squalor, as long as we're raising puppies," Steve mused.

I don't think I can bear that. On the other hand, I don't see how I can bear to dismantle my office. It makes me want to go off and chew something up myself.