Two Bad Mice.....

When I was a kid my parents used to read me a story wrote by Beatrix Potter (the same person who wrote Peter Cottontail) called  The Tale of Two Bad Mice.  It involved  two mice named Tom Thumb and his wife Hunca Munca.  You can read the story if you click on the linked story above, but basically these mice get into a lot of trouble while the people are away.  Mainly they break up a whole bunch of things and make a REALLY big mess.  I always loved the story as a kid.... but am currently not enjoying living it out in real life.   We have two dogs who get really anxious when we are away... specially if they think we aren't coming back.  Sometimes they get destructive.... but sometimes I just think they are having mischievous fun together like Tom and Hunca.  Wednesday we accidentally forgot to put the gate up in the house and the two of them  stayed in the back and were really good, so we decided to experiment with the possibilities of a little more freedom and not put the gate up a second day.  Thursday I came home to disaster.  I guess they were playing 104 card pick up first (put I was the one picking up).  They chewed up some decorations (some of which have/had the appearance of being big shiny balls.... understandably an attraction!).  They broke one of my newly made ceramic coasters and gnawed at the side, and tried to take a chunk out of our wall.  Now,  in all the doggy books I've read, they say not to discipline your dog when you come home because they won't associate the discipline with the crime, but if you saw  my dogs reactions when I came home you would think differently.  I don't believe these "dog experts" know what they are talking about. The pictures say it all.... usually the dogs are glued to my side wagging and excited.  Instead they were cowering in their safe spots, under the office table and on their pillows.  Hmmm.... Maybe I'll have to go back and read the story and find out how the end of the book goes....  In the meantime, our pups stay behind the gate.