Saturday, April 18, 2009
Botanist's nightmare

I'm sure you have all seen that large flowering bush in my humans' back yard. She planted it there before I moved in and it survived my puppy stage with minimal damage. It even survived Preston's puppy stage while he lived with us. It survived all the other dogs my human has had stay here as well. It's a tough and sturdy plant.

Then Atlantis came along and so began a botanists' nightmare. She savagely tore and gnawed on the unassuming plant until bit by bit parts came off. At first small bits were her primary target but as the plant withered and her confidence grew she began going for the jugular.. err I mean trunk.

I tried to tell her that this was wrong, that my human wouldn't be happy but she didn't listen. She was lost in the thrill of the kill and there was no way for me to talk her out of it. So I did what any dog in my position would do. I joined in the frenzy. Oh we were gitty with excitement as piece by piece, day by day, we ripped that plant apart.

My human wasn't as enthralled. In fact she was ticked. Was it because we were killing the plant, or because we were bringing all in doors? Who knows? All I know is that she was not happy and restricted our time outside greatly until her friend came over to put up a fence around the now battered plant.

I didn't much of it after that but Atlantis would not be quelled so easily. She chewed and tugged and brought that fence down. She even brought some of the fence in to the house and strutted triumphantly around before dashing back out to continue the slaughter of the plant.

The next day my human and her aunt took down the plastic mesh that lie in ruins and put up a metal mesh. Unfortunately one piece wasn't big enough so they had to string two together. Yes that made for a weak spot. It took Atlantis an extra day to find and exploit this weak spot but when she did get through the fence she was going to make sure my human knew how magnificent she was; she did this by breaking off half of what was left of the bush. She pulled it through the small hole in the fence then through the doggie door and left her prize in the kitchen for all to behold. Ok so maybe I helped a little.

Ya that was the last time we were allowed out that night. Good thing it was already late and she was about to call us in for bed anyways.

The next day my human and her aunt mended the fence and so far this time Atlantis hasn't gotten through. I'm really not sure if the plant could have survived another assault in its' current condition. At least now it will have time to recover, though it'll probably never look as healthy as it did before.

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