Vinnie jumps. Vinnie nips. Vinnie's fur is coarse (except on his ears and under his chin). Vinnie, being part beagle, will be a small dog, even though I wanted a large dog. Vinnie still has the occasional accident. Vinnie barks when he gets excited. Vinnie swallows socks. And yet I have so much love for him, it overwhelms me and brings tears to my eyes. He is the perfect dog. Ah, motherhood...
I love just watching him sometimes. Last night, as we were each in our respective beds, I watched as he moved form chewing on his monkey to his sock to his hot dog toy to his bed. He knows I don't like him chewing on his bed. The reason I won't let him chew on his bed is because the bottom part is made out of a spongy material, and he rips it apart and eats the pieces of sponge with no problem. If he keeps doing this, there will soon be no bed! Anyway, so last night I started saying, "Uh-uh!" when I saw him chewing on his bed, and he immediately, without even looking at me, started licking it. What a cutie. Like, "Oh, mom, I was just giving my bed kisses! I wasn't tearing it apart!" A few seconds later, he started chewing it again, and when I voiced my disapproval, he again started with the licking.
Let's go back to the monkey. A few weeks ago, as we were crusing through PetSmart, he spotted this bright blue stuffed monkey on the shelf. The blue monkey was surrounded by yellow monkeys, red monkeys, neon pink monkeys, ... you get the point. But Vinnie made a beeline for the blue one. At that point, I hadn't decided whether or not we were going to buy anything on this particular shopping trip, so I put it back up on the shelf and gave Vinnie a commiserative pat on the head. We continued shopping (and by "shopping," I mean, letting Vinnie run around and socialize with other dogs), and he pulled a few more things off the shelf. When we were finished, we headed back to the front of the store, and again he lunged for the blue monkey. Well, that's all I needed to give in and decide to buy it for him. I did make him carry it to the checkstand, though. :) The checker thought it was adorable.
This poor monkey. Sure, I have a dozen photos of the 2 of them cuddled up, Vinnie's arm around him all sweet and innocent-like. However. I do have, not on camera but in my memory, have many instances where Vinnie is chewing away at him like nobody's business. This dog is methodically dismembering his monkey limb by limb. He started with the tail, working on it for weeks, chewing it up, swallowing it, slowly pulling it out of his mouth again, and then repeating. After a few weeks, the tail had become so battered and withered and weak, and it snapped off. Before I could stop him, Vinnie swallowed it. He sighed with satisfaction, looked around, sniffed, and then started in on the monkey's left arm. After a week or so of that (he is getting faster, the little masticator!), half of the arm, the end, was only attached by a thread or 2. I quickly distracted Vinnie, and as soon as he turned his head, I snapped off what was left of the arm and chucked it under the bed (now that I mention it, it's probably still there... I need to go home and dispose of it before Vinnie discovers what I did). I'm sure the little guy was confused, but I did not want him to consume another monkey limb.
I'll keep you all updated on the dismemberment of his poor little friend...
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