Monday, February 6, 2012

Furnace Troubles



Troubles was a dog of completely nondescript appearance. Nothing about his floppy ears, bobbed tail or pudgy body alerted an observer that here was an animal with a remarkable ability to act dumb.
     Yet it was an act. And he was so good at it that even we, his family, fell for it. Well, the adults did. My sister and I knew better all along. For example, the three of us—me, my sister and Troubles—liked to play a game in which my sister and I ran and he tried to catch us by the heels, causing us to trip and skid across the polished wooden floor of our living room. (My mom wasn't as fond of this game as we were.)
     Troubles knew that he had to grab our shoes, not our heels above our shoes, or he'd hurt us.  We learned that he knew this and would yell ouch to get him to let go. And he always did! He was smart, but he wasn't willing to take the chance that he might have a little Achilles tendon in his teeth. When we laughed because we'd fooled him, he'd sulk until we scratched his ears and shared our penny candy with him.
     It was a simple case of revenge that finally tipped off Mom and Dad. He was a housedog—a people house dog, that is. Outside he had a doghouse that he refused to use. If we left him out and it happened to rain, he'd sulk for days. 
     But in our house we had a utility room with a concrete floor. Even if we were gone longer than we intended to be, and he had an accident, he couldn't do any damage.
     He didn't have accidents. He'd wait all day—even 10 or12 hours—to avoid using the papers we so conscientiously put down for him.
     Then one day, when he was a middle-aged dog, he must have had enough. Maybe we'd been gone too often or stayed too long. Whatever it was he was definitely pissed off. (No pun intended.) And in that indestructible room, he found the one thing he could do that would really, REALLY get back at us.
     He peed on the furnace filter.
     We came home to an entire house that reeked of dog urine.
     Of course, my parents thought it was just an unfortunate accident—the first time. After about the third time he did it, even they caught on. And yes, they were upset. Very upset.
     But my father, though not so nondescript as the dog, was no dummy either. And he was determined that no dog was going to outsmart him. Chuckling as he worked, he connected one end of a wire to the metal honeycomb that held the filter and the other end to a battery. "This'll teach even a dumb dog like you a lesson,” he informed the dog.
     Troubles watched intently. And the next time we left home for the day, leaving Troubles in the utility room... Did you guess? Troubles did NOT pee on the furnace filter.
     In fact, he NEVER DID pee on the furnace filter for all the months my dad left it wired to the battery. The day after my frustrated father took his invention apart and we left home—yup, you guessed it. Troubles peed on the furnace filter.
     My dad stood in our highly perfumed house with his hands on his hips and said, very seriously, to the dog, "OK, you win this round. But if you don't cut it out NOW, you're going to find yourself out in the ice and snow next time we have to leave town."
     And Troubles never peed on the furnace filter again.


12 comments:

  1. LOLOLOLOLOLOL oh i have a picture of him in my mind..this is a precious wonderful upset memory made right! :0)

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  2. Troubles sounds like he was one really smart dog!! I had to laugh!! Well--at least he understood what would happen if he did it again. I can't imagine what that would have smelled like, nor do I want to!! LOL. Great post!!

    Cheers, Jenn
    http://www.wine-n-chat.com

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  3. That dog is to smart for his own good!! HA! I can just imagine my husband's reaction if the dog managed to lift a leg and pee on the furnace filter. It doesn't bear thinking. Great post, and very entertaining!!

    Kathy
    http://gigglingtruckerswife.blogspot.com/

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  4. I believe most of our dogs understand a lot more of our language than the experts think. Our dogs have a very large vocabulary, meaning they understand a large number of words. I am not talking tone of voice or actions associated with a question, like "wanna go?" while putting on shoes. I am talking about uttering the word go in the middle of a sentence and seeing both dogs ear shoot straight up and their feet begin to head for the door.
    I love the relationship between our furbabies and the skin people. ♥

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  5. Hilarious! Loved this, Angela. What a smart "dumb" dog Troubles was! It's amazing how much they understand, isn't it?

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  6. ...and that is what pets are for. To cause us to question physics, psychology and reality as we know it. How a seemingly idiotic animal can with total consistency make choices that demonstrate a kind of maniacal intelligence–I don't know, but they absolutely do. Great piece.

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  7. cute name, troubles.
    how funny that he never peed again... do think he understood your dad, or was it just coincidence?

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  8. Troubles was obviously a very clever dog! Great story about the furnace filter!

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  9. LOVED this! Perfect name for your very smart dog, by the way.

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  10. Angela, check out my blog for an award...pass it on if you feel so moved. Enjoying your blog.

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  11. WOW! That's too funny. Animals are so much smarter than most people give them credit for! Troubles was brilliant, but I do wonder what made him so pissed off. ;) Loved this, Angela!

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  12. Dogs are so much smarter than we give them credit for! Hilarious!

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