Nothing But Trouble

drferox:

Working somewhere relatively isolated meant our local Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals did not have as many resources as it would have in a more populated state. This meant the RSPCA didn’t employ their own vets and used us instead. Mostly this was for desexing anything that moved, but occasionally there would be a cruelty case that needed attention.

On case in particular, was a lovely kelpie puppy and her surviving litter of puppies. They had been seized by the RSPCA when the pups were a few days old, and raised with her in the RSPCA while evidence was gathered and court proceeding did their thing

Only after two months, the ‘owner’ started making noise that they were going to claim their dogs back and were coming to the shelter to ‘claim’ them. the RSPCA inspectors had no intention of letting them have these dogs back, but there were concerns that if they knew where the dogs were, they’d break in later and steal them back. Considering they’d already skipped court there was a good chance we’d never find the dogs again if that happened.

So on the day of concern, it was decided that the Mumma Kelpie and her four puppies would spend the day at my house while I was at work, and the Long Suffering Boyfriend would dog sit. After all, he’d grown up with dogs and the puppies would be in a crate. 

He fell for their cuteness.

He wondered what could possibly go wrong if he let them out of the crate for a little while.

Like Pandora’s box opening, when my LSB opened the crate, four puppies sprung forth, each running in a different direction within the house to find something to destroy.

He could not contain more than one puppy at a time.

Every time he grabbed one to return it to the crate, the previous puppy would escape again. They roamed the house like entropy sprites, seeking things to chew and destroy.

Wonka the cat was not impressed.

Meanwhile, Mumma Kelpie would just follow the LBS around from room to room, looking smug as her offspring unleashed chaos.

Fortunately, when I returned home late from work the RSPCA inspector had already collected the dogs, after corralling them all up again.

I only witnessed a fraction of the knee-high chaos and destruction that remained. A litter of bored 8 week old puppies who have been confined most of their lives and then suddenly have free run of a house can be very creative chaos.

(And if you were wondering, they all got pet homes eventually, even though it took Mumma Kelpie months longer to be adopted.)