It was late Sunday morning and I was enjoying lunch in the den with a last cup of coffee. The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm, so Kyle was outside working in the yard.
I had just turned my laptop on when Kyle came in. He went into the living room and came back.
Calmly, he asked, "Have you been sitting there for a while?"
"Yeah, actually, I have. Why?"
"Come see what Murphy did in the living room."
Oh God. I figured she must have peed on the "dog couch" in there again (marking it? Who knows), but as I turned the corner into the front room, I saw a brand-new type of naughtiness:
She had uprooted Kyle's six-foot corn plant from its pot in front of the window, and dragged the entire plant--with most of its soil, apparently--onto the couch. That dark spot on the cushions isn't a shadow--that's dirt.
As we stood there, staring silently, Murphy wandered in. She had this look on her face, like, "Heeeey . . . so, you noticed the plant, huh?"
Stonefaced, Kyle said, "I'm not dealing with this right now," and walked out of the house.
Which was probably for the best, anyway. I yelled at the dog for a while, in the hopes that the yelling would communicate this was not considered appropriate behaviour. She wisely retreated to the back yard to think about her actions.
After thirty minutes or so of sweeping, scooping, replanting, and vacuuming, everthing looked pretty much the same. (Here I insert a shout-out to our "Gardening in a Minute" Flickr photo set, Repotting Indoor Plants) Of course, the plant is now leaning a little, and the pothos plant that was growing at the base of it is much, much smaller. I did take a few pieces of the pothos and put them in water; hopefully they'll root. And while the couch cushions are not clean, exactly--they're clean enough for the dog, anyway.
There are two lingering mysteries: one, why now? That plant had been sitting in that same exact spot for a few weeks. And two, how did I not hear her knock it over? I didn't have the television on or anything. Weird.
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I promised a photo of Kyle in his beard, and I got one just in time--he plans to shave it off when he returns this weekend from his trip down to Polk County (he's helping our friend Greg with a BBQ competition).
I took it with my iPhone last night at Hooters trivia:
He grew that in a week. Seriously.
