A reader asked recently if Oscar was still destroying his beds. It had been so long since he had torn up a bed that I thought he was done with that. No! He is not!
I had made Speck a pillowcase using dog fabric. He always loved (and respected) his pillows. If we were traveling, I would put his pillow on the console, hopefully safely out of reach of an airbag, and he would ride there for hours. If we were in a hotel, he was happy to have his comfy pillow. Once I thought Oscar was done shredding beds, I took Speck’s pillowcase and, figuring he would manage to either get the pillow out of the pillowcase or get himself inside the pillowcase with the pillow and get stuck, I took batting and folded it up to be the size of the pillowcase, put the batting inside the pillowcase, did some channel stitching so I could wash the pillow without the batting bunching up and then sewed the end of the pillowcase closed.
He’s been using that pillow/bed for over a month and I had not seen him trying to chew it or shred it. Yesterday, I had gone outside to pick up what Oscar and Rita leave behind. Addie was outside with me. Oscar was sleeping on his pillow when we went outside. We were outside less than 10 minutes and this is what I found when I got back inside.
Addie walked in ahead of me. She backed out, closed the door and said “You are NOT going to be happy.” She was correct. She didn’t know it was Speck’s pillowcase and I didn’t tell her. She’s so sentimental about things like that.
I had a good talk with myself before I gave Oscar that pillow. I felt that he had gotten past the pillow shredding stage but there were no guarantees. I wanted to be certain that I wouldn’t be very sad if he tore up Speck’s pillowcase. I was aggravated at Oscar because I expected this kind of behavior to be over by now but . . he needs a little more time I guess.
Vince walked in last night and he said “Speck’s pillow! What are you going to do?” I am going to look at it later today and see if there’s a part of it that can be saved. If there is, I think I’ll make it into a little pillow and keep it with some of the cross stitched smalls I’m making for a dough bowl.
Liz says
I sent you a link to a pattern that had two dachshunds wearing sweaters. It’s from Plum Street Peddlers and is called Starbarks. It would be a cute addition to a dog themed basket.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
That one was pre-ordered as soon as it was shown. 🙂
Helen, hugging you from Ohio says
I am so sorry, Judy. Those kinds of behaviors are unexpected and can be very frustrating. Especially when it’s something that you treasure sentimentally. I hope you can salvage a small portion of it and make into a pillow as a remembrance – both of Speck and the little stinker that Oscar is sometimes.
DebMac says
Oh Judy, how sad for you but I bet Oscar had a darn good time! For your sake I hope he grows out of it. We had 2 English Setters that never did.They would go months without tearing up a bed then for not apparent reason one would destroy their bed. We had beds in their crates and they wouldn’t just chew a corner but totally destroy them. We came home one day and they had both destroyed their beds! After a few rounds of this, I just stopped buying beds. I discussed the issue with our vet and she was worried they would start eating the fiberfill and have a bowel blockage. Been there, done that with one of them already so it was just safer to do without beds.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I had about decided that if he tore up one more, he would go without. Speck always loved his comfy beds and, maybe I’ve forgotten, but I don’t remember him being destructive. As a puppy, he chewed a few cords and shredded papers he could find but I think Oscar looks at everything as something to destory.