Bonding Over Pet Damage at Home Depot

The culprit:

We have a wonderful blue pit bull who loves his family very much. The boys have had him since he was a puppy; they routinely wrestle and play with him, and he can't get enough. He's sweet, friendly, and always eager to play. (He's also afraid of the wind, has deadly gas, and snores in his sleep, but that's neither here nor there.)

He loves us all so much, in fact, that he has actually tried to eat his way into the house to be with us. He learned how to chew at the door frame from another pit that sadly had to be put down (not for gnawing on the door). I think being lonely and missing his companion, combined with the knowledge she gave him, led him to do this:

The damage:

While my boyfriend stared at the door frame in speechless anger, I went to get my camera in order to collect data. Armed with the evidence, I drove to Home Depot, found the nearest orange-smocked employee, and threw myself at (on?) his mercy. After marveling at the amount of damage and asking what kind of beast I had, ("Oh yeah, those guys are chewers"), he brought me to another man who had carpentry experience. This kind man didn't even blink an eye as he looked at the pictures and described each of the pieces of wood I would need to fix the damage.

As I breathed a sigh of relief over the apparent simplicity of fixing the problem, he led me over to the back wall that held long pieces of wood that he could cut down to size for me. As we approached, I saw a woman with her husband, holding a piece of wood that looked suspiciously like it had been chewed on. I asked her, "Do you have a dog that tried to chew up your house, too?" She immediately launched into a story about how her Boston terrier had chewed up the baseboards in her kitchen. I showed her the pictures of my own little disaster area (these are better at eliciting responses than baby pictures, people!) and she in turn told me about her chihuahua that liked to chew on dry wall. As we talked back and forth about our various animals and their effects on our households, I felt a sense of camaraderie with all people who have had to scour the isles of various home improvement stores looking for solutions to their pet problems. Since I'm not a mother, this is probably as close as I'll ever get to that feeling of kinship with other caretakers, loving their wards no matter what havoc they wreck.

Epilogue: I would have to return to Home Depot another day, since I didn't have the width of the largest piece of wood I would need. The carpenter explained to me how to pry one of the pieces from the drywall with a crowbar, and then saw off the other pieces to bring in. Can't wait.

in loving memory

Kitty 2001-2008