Tucker Strikes Again...

Well, I’m sure our dog is the healthiest dog around.

I came home to find three vitamin bottles under our kitchen table.  The lids were chewed off.  And they were empty.  And Tucker was asleep in our entry.  Not dead.  Just asleep.

Apparently, each and every vitamin was devoured.  He ate a bottle of vitamin D3, mushrooms and green tea.  Following my diagnosis, I met with a cancer nutritionist who suggested I take several daily supplements. They’re expensive.  

He ate $138.97 worth of daily supplements.  

And he’s still alive.  The supplements didn’t kill him.  

And neither did I.  

So if I keep a running total of expenses, we’ve just embarked on a four-digit figure for this guy.  By the time you factor in his adoption fee, training sessions, bones, dog food, more bones, many collars and leashes (every trainer I meet recommends a different one -- plus he chewed one right off his neck), more bones, new walking shoes, and antlers (yes, you read that right), this guy’s expensive.  

But still worth it.

The day before he ate my vitamins (which by the way, I felt were far out of his reach on the kitchen counter), my daughter and I took him to Yozen Frogurt.  We had dreamed of this day -- Rachel and I and our new Golden Retriever sitting outside on their patio on a beautiful summer’s day enjoying the best yogurt in town.  Except Tucker came to us with one fear -- 

getting into a car.  

So we hired a trainer who, in five minutes, had him jumping into our car.  So the next day, we headed out for yogurt.   And into a nightmare.  

After we ate our bowls of yogurt, we walked back to our car and said, “Tucker, in the car” and he refused.  He wanted nothing to do with getting back into the car.  So I did my best to coax, carry and pull him into our car.  I couldn’t do it.  Remember, the guy weighs close to 90 pounds.   So as I grabbed his collar one more time and tried to throw help him in, he squirmed out of his collar and made a mad dash off into the parking lot.  Thankfully, I grabbed the very end of his yellow tail and hung on with all my strength.  

Thank God, there just happened to be sheriffs from a Search and Rescue team finishing their yogurt.  I had Rachel hang onto him and ran over and asked two sheriffs to use their rescue skills on my behalf.  He fought them off too, but eventually their skills won out over his will.

Oh, what fun memories of owning our very own Golden Retriever!

  The name Marley is popping into my head more than ever before.

Our next training session is today at 3:45.  I can’t wait.

And, again, the guy got off easy.