A Ballocaust

Roxy is driving us nuts.

Don't get me wrong, she's not a bad dog. She's just a rather needy, neurotic dog. She's completely ball-obsessed, and chews through a tennis ball in ten minutes flat. The good news is, she doesn't seem particularly inclined to chew on anything else, i.e. the sofa, shoes, tables or people. The bad news is, she seems to need to chew on something all the time, and without a tennis ball, she wanders around the house squeaking for something to chew on.

The picture here is of a small sampling of the balls Roxy has gone through in just a few days: a soccer ball, three or four tennis balls, a baseball, and several plastic squeaky balls. She also has to be kept out of Grayson's room because she will abscond with anything she finds in there that is vaguely ball-shaped, including Bakugan toys, stuffed animals that are roughly spherical, rolled up socks, and balls that actually belong to my son.

It wouldn't be so bad, except that she chews them into itty bitty pieces, which are constantly scattered all over the living room floor. Some of these pieces she subsequently swallows, later barfing them up messily onto the carpet, which leaves a vile green stain.

If I give them beef bones to chew, Kobi goes around collecting all of them from the others and either standing guard over them, snarling, or burying them in the flower pot on the back patio. (Only to bring them back in, dripping mud, at midnight)

I had some luck giving them cow hooves to chew on. This seemed to generate less sibling rivalry than the bones do. But recently all cow hooves have been recalled because of some salmonella scare, so they are currently unavailable. I'm sure I should be glad of this, but I'm actually just annoyed. My dog needs hooves, dammit! I don't care about any stinking salmonella risk! She's driving me NUTS.

Did I mention that she's a really sweet dog? She is. Really. She is very gentle and has learned to play with Kobi. She snuggles with us on the sofa and she never has an accident in the house. But I've had to keep her inside almost all the time because she barks continually and tries to claw through the screens when she is left outside all day. My neighbors actually complained, which pained them, I could tell. They're very nice people and I could tell they didn't like to have to say anything.

Ive been trying to acclimate her to being out with the other dogs for longer and longer periods of time, by leaving her out with the screen door open, so she knows I'm home and can feel comfortable coming and going as she pleases. That worked great until the weather turned,and now it's too cold to leave the door open.

Honestly, I believe she's getting better. She no longer throws herself against the front door when she hears me coming home. She no longer barks at every tiny noise during the night, and she has been out for an hour or so at a time with me home without barking at the door. I am being patient.

But she's still driving me nuts.