Walter Versus the Christmas Tree
It’s that time of year and Walter will soon expereince his first Christmas. Walter noticed that some things around the house were changing when he saw Doc bring down storage bins from the attic and a tree up from the basement. He watched with the curiosity only a puppy would have. I immedialty knew what he was thinking when he saw all of those decorations come out. The gears of destruction were turning in his head just the way mine did on my first Christmas and lets just say things didn’t turn out well.
Doc should know better than to trust that a five month old puppy would leave all those new sparkly decorations alone. The long strings of lights, garlands and ornaments were just too much of a temptation for little Walter. While Doc was hanging the garland and the lights on the mantle, Walter watched quietly from a distance like it was just another day. Doc then went about the task of deocrating the tree, and once again Walter behaved just like an angel. What Doc didn’t know was that Walter was waiting for the prime opportunity to get to the decorations when no one was looking. That opportunity came sooner than expected when the door bell rang and while two door to door sales people kept Doc busy for a minute, Walter ran straight for the tree.
Well, I bet you can almost guess what happened next. Walter went straight for the ornaments on the bottom branches and I am sad to say that he wounded a few ornaments and placed two more in serious condition, and they may be beyond repair. Next he went for the string of lights and started tugging and managed to pull so hard, that you guessed it, he pulled the tree right over. Doc heard the crash, slammed the door on the salesmen and came running. Luckily Walter is fast enough he didn’t get hurt but I can’t say the same for the tree. Althougth the limbs are a bit jostled, Doc managed to put it back togeter and lets just say it looks a little better than Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree.
All of this was a reminder to Doc that she forgot about the challenges of rasing a puppy. It takes patience, consistency, constant supervision, good boundaries, and lots and lots of love. I know it exhuasts her sometimes, but it will be all worth it when he grows up to be a great therapy dog.