Thief!

This past Friday, Milt and I took a little jaunt to Petco to use one of  his birthday gift cards.  Of course, we left late afternoon, and we got bogged down in typical Dallas traffic.  That aside, we first went to the wrong pet store, PetSmart, and we were forced to redirect to the other side of town.  No problem.

We walked into Petco, and I immediately stepped, with my bare footed flip-flop, into a big puddle of doggie piss.  Typical.  Then the store was all out of the cute dog bone tag that we wanted.  Well, we got over that and picked out a different one, but then, wouldn't you know it, the engraving machine was on the fritz!  Although, the nice Petco employee offered to make us a free engraving once the machine finally rebooted, which I thought was very gracious.

Milt Dog and I waited and waited while he yanked and tugged on his leash because, as you know, a pet store is pretty exciting for a little fellow.  Foolishly, Petco placed their engraving machine directly next to a whole nicely refrigerated section of various real bone products right at puppy nose level.  The next time I responded to one of Milton's yanks, I noticed he was munching on something and what do I see but this:

Irresistible

It was a meaty knuckle bone that Milton simply could not resist.  I was more than a little mortified.  That is certainly not how Jeff and I raised that boy.  Normally, I can talk my way out of these situations fairly easily -- it looked like a free sample, Milt just took a little nibble, etc; however, in this case, Milt was squarely in the wrong with his Momma holding him red-pawed.

Well, the dog tag machine was never fixed, and we bought that big knuckle.  I still like to think that Milton was somewhat innocent in this situation and that temptation proved just a little too strong, but he's a pretty bright boy, and I think he was fully aware of what he was doing the entire time.  The reward just seemed greater than the punishment because we all know his Momma is really terrible at discipline.  Watch him walk on leash with me, and it will be quite obvious that I do not hold the control.
 

The little thief

Dragging his kill into the yard

I thought about throwing out the knuckle, just to teach Milt a lesson, but we all know how quickly dogs forget things.  He probably just thought his Momma bought him this bone to be sweet: Wasn't that nice of her?  Well, what's the moral of this story?  The Milt was just like a kid in a candy shop, and he is not to be trusted near food.  Ever.  Last night, he hauled himself up on a kitchen chair to reach the table.  This boy is on a roaring rampage.