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Doggone it, don’t touch my stuff

Over the past few months, I have shared with you some of my personal observations concerning my wife’s dog, Abbey.

She is a thief and a skilled pickpocket. She loves to steal socks and handkerchiefs. She can get a handkerchief from your pants pocket or out of a pocketbook and I will guarantee you will never feel her do it.

Admittedly, it is harder for her to steal your socks if you have them on, especially if you are wearing shoes, but she is working on it.

However, socks that are dropped on the bathroom floor for even a few seconds or clean folded socks in the laundry basket are fair game.

In the corner of our family room is one of Abbey’s several doggie beds heaped high with stuffed toys to keep them from being in every room in the house. What we did not realize is that Abbey also uses the pile to bury other things as well.

We discovered this by accident when the lady who cleans for us came to our home the other day to do some housework.

Sue is a great person and a dear friend so her “work visits” are mixed with personal exchanges and family updates as well as doing a wonderful job. One of her first duties when she enters our home is some Abbey time.

When Sue opens the door, Abbey goes nuts. She squeals like someone was trying to kill her, rolls on the floor once or twice and when Sue says, “Get in your chair,” hops up in the chair and leans back so Sue can easily scratch her stomach. After a minute or two, Sue squeezes into the chair as well and asks Abbey, “Have they been mistreating you?” Abbey responds with a low growl, sad eyes and a whining sound that must be dog talk for, “I am being held hostage, save me, take me home with you.”

After a few minutes of this mutual love fest, Sue announces, “OK, I have to get my stuff” and starts to gather her cleaning supplies.

In an instant Abbey is back to normal and is looking for somewhere to sack out. At first I thought it would be very difficult for Sue to get anything done with Abbey always wanting attention, but Abbey moves from room to room, lays down and simply watches her work or so we thought until this past weekend, which as Paul Harvey used to say, we got, “The Rest Of The Story.”

Sometime around mid-morning, Sue came into the kitchen and following closely behind was Abbey.

Laughing, Sue explained, “When I am cleaning the furniture, occasionally I might find a toy stuffed down behind a cushion. I would always remove it and put it in her toy pile and never thought any more about it. Lately Abbey has started to follow me around as I clean. This morning when I got to the living room, Abbey jumped up on the couch and pulled a new dog chewy from under the cushion. I followed her into the dining room where she tried to stick it behind the china closet. When I got to one of the spare bedrooms, she crawled under the bed and pulled out a clean pair of folded socks and a crumpled handkerchief she had hidden there. She is trying to protect her ‘stash’ by relocating it before I can pick it up.”

Now I must admit that I am a FOX News junkie, but I had no idea Abbey was listening as well. It seems as if she knows things are bad and bound to get worse so she is not only stocking up but is trying to protect her “stuff” as well by keeping guard over her possessions.

John Kasun writes from his home in Duncansville where he can often be heard saying to his wife, “Stop her — she just stole my hanky!”

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