Steve Snell’s Gundog Blog

A few days before Christmas,  my family went out to the movies.  You would think it would
be a simple operation, but it’s more like moving a small army.

I took the kids to see “Avatar” and Kathy went with her folks to see “The
Blindside.”

 After getting out of the movie I checked my phone to see
if I had any messages.

I had several from our alarm company.  When I got them on the phone
they told me that the alarm had gone off and the sheriff department
had been dispatched.

I called the Sheriff Department to see if anything bad had happened.

They said the back sliding door was open when they got there but
everything seemed fine and they locked up.

I immediately knew I had a major problem.  Brandy and Lucy were in the
backyard when we left for the movies.  Lucy knows how to open the
backdoor if you don’t lock it.  My guess is that one of the kids put
her out and forgot to lock the door.

She opened the door after we left and set off the alarm.  When the police
got there, either the dogs were upstairs or since they were already inside
the officers figured they should be there and left them inside.

Lucy isn’t really an issue.  She is not a chewer anymore and behaves
pretty well.

Brandy is another story.  She just turned a year old and loves to
shred anything she can.  She is about as high drive of an animal that
I have ever owned.

I just knew what I would get home to…..every Christmas present torn
open, the Christmas tree dragged across the house.  Stuffed animals
ripped into small pieces, every Santa figurine of my wife’s in small,
spit covered hunks, and several dead small pets (snake, rat and
bearded dragon were in the house unprotected from the Brandy tornado)

Much to my surprise, there was very little damage.  They had dragged a
bunch of stuffed animals out from under one of the beds.  They also
found a bag of food for the rat that was too tasty to pass up.

Not a single Christmas present or decoration was touched.  Hard to
believe.  Maybe Brandy is coming around as she gets older….or it
could have just been a Christmas Miracle.

Steve Snell