It's no secret. I'm in love with the Napa Valley. In fact, I'm sure many of you are sick and tired of us talking about how great it is, how I can't imagine a better way to spend a birthday than with a quick trip there, that the food and wine are beyond belief, and the scenery is breathtaking. We've gone so far as to write up a three-part itinerary for anyone thinking of visiting, and I've made it a personal destination for seven years running.
Although it's hard for me to believe there's anyone out there that wouldn't love it too, in the last week one of our crew members here at Old Town Home has made it known she wasn't happy we made a quick departure for the west coast. Do you have any guesses who that might be? Here's a hint.
Yep, that's right. This innocent face has been in a little bit of a snit since we've been back.
Ordinarily Lulu is a dream. Our 30 pound rescue pup is sweet, loving, and mostly a couch potato. (Well, a couch potato after her first five minutes of sheer jumping mania when she says hello.) There's only been one other period in our time with her that she went on a pillow throwing, crate and Easter basket-eating tirade, but we thought we were past that. I guess we were wrong.
Since we've been back from California, our Ori Pei has been on a tear. Literally. If you're a pillow in this house, you're not safe. And rather than merely throw them on the floor, like she did in her tirade period that I referenced, this time she's making it rain snow.
Last weekend, after a quick trip to Target, Alex and I came home to the following site.
What looked like a freak May snowstorm in our sun porch, was actually the stuffing of a really old, and pretty ugly pillow leftover from my college days. Luckily I don't care about the pillow, but it's the look on her face that really makes me concerned. This big grin is one that says, "revenge is best served cold and while you're out of the house." I'm pretty sure that if she could extend a middle finger, she'd be waving it at the camera.
The sun porch drama happened again the following day, this time to a much lesser extent. In this case, yet another ugly pillow left from Alex's college days suffered a bit of a flesh wound.
I suppose she felt we weren't rattled or warned enough following the sun porch incidents. So in order to really drive her point home that it's not cool to up and leave her for wine country (or anywhere for that matter), Lulu moved her plan of attack upstairs, this time to our bedroom.
On two separate days, Lulu went after the pillows on our bed. She was careful in her strategy to remove the decorative pillows and Euro shams, and go straight for our sleeping pillows. What we were left with looked like a (very tame) scene out of a Nightmare on Elm Street movie.
Freddy Kruger's Lulu's work was pretty impressive. She managed to successfully shred two pillow cases without damaging the feather pillows themselves. Despite the fact that these pillow cases were wedding gifts, they are now going on ten years old and were in need of replacement anyway. Don't tell Lulu, but we thought her antics were a little funny, given she destroyed only things in our home that needed to be retired anyway. Wait a second? Maybe she wants in on the decorating action, and is trying to tell us something? Something like "Hey guys, I know you've had these pillows and pillow cases for a while, but don't you think it's time for a bit of a scenery change?"
We haven't broken the news to her yet, but a few ripped up pillows aren't going to be enough to keep me from visiting my happy place. We'll just have to figure out a way to get those long legs of hers tucked inside a carry on bag for our next trip. :-)
Do your pets act out when you go on a trip? Or maybe like Lulu, they prefer to wait to show their displeasure until you've returned? What's the most destructive pet attack that's happened in your home? Hopefully like us, only unimportant items have been affected.
