Emma = Marley

If you've seen the movie "Marley and Me" then you know that they call Marley the "worst dog ever" among a collection of other things.  Well Chad and I have decided that Emma(or simply dog if you're a certain 2 year old red head) could be the next Marley.

• She chews on everything.  Including the old door hangers still left on our door facings.  Our house had about a bazillion(that's a technical term) doors in it when we bought it.  So we took them all down but for some reason we haven't removed the hingey hangy things.  When we painted the door facings we(and I mean me) painted the hingey hangy things too.  She's completed chewed off all of the paint on each and every one of the door facings.
• She is teaching Clayton how to bark.  They have recently been spotted barking at people that are walking down the sidewalk across the street.  And yes when I say they, I do mean both of them are barking.
• She has been a house dog since she was just a few weeks old and she is just now starting to get the concept of using the grass to do her 'biz and not using the tile or hardwoods.
• She has a taste for leather.  She has chewed up, in to tee tiny little pieces, one of Chad's belts(brand new) and a pair of really awesome nude colored dressy heels that I found at Goodwill for $3.  I was so excited about these shoes because they were something totally new and different for me.  I couldn't decide whether or not to wear them on Easter and at the very last minute decided to wear my black standbys and tossed the nude sandals on the bed.  Mistake!!!  There were tiny pieces of leather all over our bed.  Lesson learned.
• We've recently given her a little more rope and are letting her stay our of her crate while we are gone and at night.  This works well most of the time.  But occasionally she decides that Clayton needs to be awake at 6am(or earlier).  She will either jump in his bed or stand at his bedroom door and bark at him until he gets up.  Then you hear the two of them roaming around the house.  It would be very cute and funny if it wasn't so very early.

But our Marley dog does go to bed with me every night.  She snuggles up beside of me and stays with me until Chad makes her leave.  She curls up with me on the couch if I fall asleep there(more often than not I do fall asleep on the couch).  While I was infirmed and calling for death(that's a joke, maybe) Emma didn't leave my side.  She hugged the porcelain throne with me and then curled up next to me when I eventually stumbled back to bed.  She also doesn't lick like a lot of dogs.  She will put her nose up next to you or even on you but she never licks.  And she likes to talk.  If she's not getting the attention she thinks she deserves then she will strike up a conversation.  I think she's a keeper.