Naughty Black Dog (again) and cute Reindeer

We adopted Tyler over 9 years ago and during those 9 years we have had one safe place to keep things away from him in the kitchen, our microwave.  Well, we also have the fridge but for over 9 years have used the microwave for all baked goods, fruit (he has an interest in apples and kiwi fruit) and other odds and ends that normal people can keep out on their counters.  I don't even remember what it is like to leave something on the counter!!  Tyler will never change so we just learned that if we wanted it kept safe and not eaten, food had to be kept in the fridge or microwave.

I learned last month that food is not safe in the big drawer unit we have either (remember the birthday carrot cake that got eaten out of a heavy, closed drawer?  Thanks Tyler).  I also learned that cupboards are not safe - he once at one Liter of salmon oil that he got out of a closed cupboard at our old house - so food is not kept in out kitchen cupboards either; we use a big closet that is set up like a pantry.

Back to today.  We had dinner at my parent's house and when we got home we found our microwave, which has been in the exact same place since we moved in 2.5 years ago, on the kitchen floor.  Uh oh.  Microwaves tend to not like being thrown on the floor by black labs.  Now, while part of me would have loved to have seen him actually push the microwave onto the floor, I am also annoyed that we have now lost the only place to keep stuff!!  He didn't succeed in his goal tonight though, the microwave wasn't open and there was nothing in there tonight anyways.

Now I guess we will have to use the fridge for all foodstuffs - no counter, microwave, drawers, cupboards.  We talked about using the stove but it looks relatively easy to open to us.  I am thinking we should get a lock for the fridge now before he figures that one out.  If he does, we are in a lot of trouble.  He does keep life interesting that naughty black lab!

Onto the Reindeer portion of this post.  I took about a dozen or so pictures of these two today but this is the best I could do.  Maelle was either trying to eat her antlers or his and Loic was too excited to sit still AND look at me at the same time:

Two giggly little Reindeer 

We got our tree today too - we have it on the deck right now but it will come in soon to be decorated.  Loic is pretty darn excited about Santa this year which is really neat to watch.

-E