Is It Only Wrong to Kill People?

I really want to do vile things to our dog. Things that will cause her to limp for a while, at the very least. I'm not really an animal lover anyway. I tolerate that smelly, poorly behaved mongrel because my husband wanted her and most of the kids seem to like her. But on this day, I have had it. I have had it up to my eyeballs. To the top of my 5'10" frame. To the sky even. I have had it. And it's certainly isn't as if this is the first incident where I wanted to cause bodily injury to her. Not.at.all. I just thought we were past this kind of behavior, that's all.

We got her September of last year when she was 5 months old. For 10 days, she was a great dog. We left her at home, in the house, when we would leave, and she never offered to chew a thing. She always pottied outside, never in the house. She was really a great dog.

Then we had to make a trip to Houston when my mother was ill and dying. We took her on a 6-hour car trip to leave her with my in-laws who kept her in a cage except for a few times a day, for 10 days. In their defense, Pinto had peed in the hall of their house a couple of times and I can see where that would be problem. But in Pinto's defense, their dog had made a toilet of that area long before Pinto arrived and no amount of cleaning could ever get the smell out. So she did what came naturally.

Apparently, Pinto didn't approve of being caged for 10 days straight. When we got home, it was no holds barred. Shoes, books, toys rendered unrecognizable by Pinto. I know that she chewed up at least a dozen pair of the girls' shoes. She would snap and bite at the girls while they were outside playing or knock them down. One afternoon, I returned to find Darcy's Bible turned into confetti on the living room floor along with several other books, that she drug out. She shat on my carpet. She literally chewed a hole in the sheetrock in our bedroom wall and chewed a bookshelf and an exterior door frame. When I put her outside, she barked and howled so much, neighbors we had never met came over to complain.

Instead of taking her directly to the pound, I had an idea. What if we brought in her cage and left her in it whenever we were going to bed or going to be gone? She would be totally unable to do anything but destroy her own bedding. I could live with that so that is what we did. Except I got tired of having her nasty cage in my kitchen. It looked...unkempt. But by the time I got to this point, the weather was cooler so it was safe to move her cage to the garage. As the weather got colder and colder, we started bringing her in at night and she seemed to do fine. Then the weather warmed up and the holes started.

Digging China-deep holes. Everywhere.

Then she had her "heat". I have to say, the only other dog I ever had was fixed early on and I had no idea that this happened. What a mess! I was so grossed out by the licking and the dripping. Blech. I searched the internet for cleaning concoctions. I scrubbed the floor until my fingers were raw and painful. This, in no way, endeared me to the dog. And then finally, the bloodbath was over. She didn't seem as exuberant after her heat. She seemed more docile. She was content to go outside and just lay out there in the grass or on the porch. She would stretch out on the carpet and she didn't seem to be snipping at the girls when they were outside playing. I could tolerate her again.

We left her at a kennel when we needed to travel to Beaumont for a funeral. That man kept several other dogs and Pinto had both an outside and indoor kennel and an opportunity to play outside with the other dogs. This time, when she came home, she didn't terrorize us with her alleged incontinence. She didn't tear up shoes or books. She seemed perfectly fine.

One day, I noticed she wasn't alone in the backyard. She had a friend visiting from the other side of the fence. As it turned out, Pinto was digging holes on this side of the fence that were so large, dogs from another yard were coming over to play. Any hole in the ground (or fence) that was patched or filled, Pinto would just dig another one. It's like the Montagues and the Capulets back there. I've actually wondered if we would have less problems if we got another dog for her to play with, but good grief! We have 4 kids. I don't even want this dog, much less another one.

And here we are, at present. Two weeks ago, Pinto chewed up pieces of Brian's rug. Brian's rug procured in Turkey, while in the Navy. A rug that is probably worth a couple thousand dollars here in the States. A rug Brian loves. I folded the rug up and put it in the closet so Brian wouldn't see it when he got home. I did chasten the dog appropriately, but not to the extent Brian suggested.

And now today, my Hidden Star quilt. I haven't been working on it for 2 years, but it's been 2 years since I started it. I only had the borders to do, and was unsure if I was going to need help. I managed to get the first layer of borders on without any assistance. The second layer is a "piano-key" border pieced together out of fabric already in the quilt that resembles piano keys. Those borders were prepared, but not sewn on yet. Except now, Pinto has ruined several pieces of the piano keys and there are a few holes in the border that is on the quilt. So, now to take apart the borders and replace the ruined sections with material I may not be able find or leave it and hope that it will all work out in the quilting? I'll have to trim off the mangled section of piano keys and prepare more and sew them together.

And I just don't want to do that!

I really want this dog to be someone else's problem besides mine! Although, before we send her to the knackers, I did have Brian bring her kennel back in the house. It's too hot for her to be in the garage. I'm not cruel, even though I'm furious and want her to live somewhere else. Anywhere else. What an impaired person I am...4 small children, and a freaking high maintenance whiny dog. Not exactly what I had in mind.

Anyone want a Catahoula?