Mischief Managed

Look at that face. He is cute as the dickens, isn't he? He's a little rascal too. The other day I came out of the bedroom and noticed one of my black flats on the pug's bed. Shorty is a notorious shoe chewer, believe me, he has destroyed many. I didn't readily see Shorty but I knew he was close by and had just recently been gnawing on my shoe, the tell-tell dog slobber was a dead give away. As I do for my sometimes wayward sons, I said his full name in my best reproachful-mother-voice, to what I thought was an empty living room.

Short Round.

I noticed a slight movement by the coffee table, it was Shorty. Crouched down with his tail tucked between his legs, he was painstakingly trying to make his way from the scene of the crime unnoticed. It didn't work. Lifting one paw at a time as if he were walking through molasses, he slowly made his way to the kitchen, the whole time thinking "If I just stay low enough and not bring too much attention to myself, I could make a clean getaway."

Short Round, you know you're not supposed to chew on shoes.

Still totally unaware that I could see him, Shorty stops in mid-stride. Frozen in time with one paw still in the air as if in tableaux, he crouches even lower and starts slinking his way to the kitchen. He's pretty short as pugs go so he's already close to the floor, but at this point his poor belly was dragging. It's funny how dogs are so much like toddlers, you know like when they haven't quite figured out that sound carries from one room to the other.

Shorty.

At this point he stops, fully aware that the jig is up and just lays there on the floor staring at me with those big brown sorrowful eyes. As a parent I know the difficulty in trying to be stern with a child that is in trouble, but is just so stinking cute and the situation terribly funny. I didn't have the heart to be too tough on Shorty, but I didn't want to spare the rod and spoil the dog so to speak. So with my shoe still in hand, I gave his rump a light little tap and picked him up to look into his face.

Oh Round, don't be chewing on shoes.

I got the same remorseful look that I would get from my boys, and I'm sure if he could speak he'd have said, "Yes, Ma'am."