When you have a dog like Delilah, every day life is challenging. Why just Sunday she ate a stick of butter off the counter. Organic butter! Yo that stuff is not cheap. She ate like a dollar’s worth of butter. In one sitting…..er standing.
Holidays can be extra challenging because of all the additional food and when you throw in a Christmas tree and presents, well you best be bringing your A game to make sure everything stays exactly as you want it. Cause this dog has skills. Mad skills. She’s brazen and fast and goes after what she wants.
The first year we put up a tree we lost a number of ornaments. My baby elf. Oh my baby elf. Hand-crafted by me over 30 years ago, my special ornaments always went on the tree first. And then Delilah ate an elf. So we stopped putting my treasures up.
And forget about putting presents under the tree, Delilah likes to unwrap packages and then chew up what’s inside.
We’ve had to simplify our tree. This year, I went totally basic.
As you can see, Sampson could care less about the tree, the ornaments or anything that might be underneath it.
I stuck with simple ribbons, crystals and a few glass ornaments and so far, Delilah hasn’t even looked at it.
Until a present came in the mail yesterday. So we’ve gated off our tree.
Hubby took our fireplace screen and arranged the furniture just so. But it doesn’t keep a girl from window shopping. 😉
How are your pups around the tree, do they bother the tree, ornaments, presents? What creative ways do you use to help keep your sanity around the holidays?
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Oh Delilah, why are giving your mom a hard time? You are supposed to be good this time of year. Well, all year really. but especially now.
Too funny! Your husband is clever. Who would have thought of putting a fireplace screen around the Christmas tree! Diesel ate an ornament off our tree but I guess he didn’t think it was very tasty because he hasn’t touched another! Fingers crossed that he leaves the tree alone:)
I think it looks absolutely beautiful!!!!! Great job!
((hugz)) from your Husky Pals!
Sampson I have a feeling you snoop around the tree when no one is looking, BOL
Lily
I think that is a beautiful tree. Love the fireplace gate! I don’t think I could put presents under the tree either as gman is the one man wrecking crew.
We’ve been lucky to not have a problem with trees except for one male dog who had to pee on it once. That seemed to be enough to establish whatever he was trying for.
Your Tree is BEAUTIFUL… and the Screen is BRILLIANT… as brilliant as the pretty lights.
OUR tree goes way up HIGH so we can’t reach it… and our mom puts our pressies up there also…
An ENTIRE stick of ORGANIC BUTTER?? Delilah girrrrrrrl you are gonna have some SLICK POOPS. We WISH we could reach high like that.
What a lovely tree and we are smiling at the fire screen. LOL the butter and did D look like butter wouldn’t melt?
Have a terrific Tuesday.
Best wishes Molly
They put the tree in jail?! Yikes, D. These people mean business. Mom doesn’t remember what it means to have gifts under the tree. Around here they are piled on chairs and tables and locked up in the bedroom.
Love and licks,
Cupcake
Priceless! So you won’t be having a fire this festive season? The Butter Ball will have to walk those calories off…
Awww. That’s always sad, losing treasured ornaments. Delilah, you bad dog! We’ve never had a dog that gets into the tree or gifts. We haven’t even had a cat that does. Kids – whole different story. I love the gate around the tree, though. That’s genius.
Silas *loves* opening presents. He doesn’t care if they’re his or not. My husband’s grandparents have a very placid golden retriever mix. The first year that Silas went to their house and tore open his own wrapping paper, they were stunned.
We haven’t put our tree up in years. I tried to do it this year, but my husband never did get around to getting it down from the attic. (Yes, we use a fake tree. It’s what a lot of Southerners grew up with.) I suspect that Silas would be right there with Delilah, eating the ornaments.
We gave up on a tree when we got the golden retrievers, they are such kleptomaniacs. Some years we ‘ll have it in a room we can close off when not home. I like the fireplace screen idea, I think we might try something like that next year!
Mom brought her first dog (100 lbs) that they got at the Humane Society home and the tree was up. The ornaments went flying as she batted them with her big fluffy tail, so the tree came down.The rest of us dogs haven’t had any interest in the tree. My cat bro Bert climbed it a few times the first two years he lived with us but he didn’t damage anything. I guess Mom is pretty lucky.
It’s a beautiful tree you got there. I want to open all the gifts beneath the tree if my mother is not around.
I must say your fireplace screen looks much prettier in front of the tree than my exercise pen does. 🙂
Honey’s fine with the tree. As long as she’s not happy. Then the big swishy tail takes everything out.
I’m happy Delilah is giving you hours of entertainment. And love the way you coordinated your tree with Sampson. 🙂
So pretty! We skipped the tree altogether this year and instead wrapped a tension rod in our kitchen window with red and white yarn and hung ornaments from that. None of the dogs or cat can get to it. Knock on wood, but here’s hoping for our first ever holiday without a trip to the emergency vet!
LOL!!! I especially love the last picture!
I’m not really sure what Blueberry would do if I put up a tree. (Unless Christmas is at my house I don’t usually bother.) I know that last year when I fostered puppy Linus – he and Blueberry tag teamed my handcrafted, stuffed snow lady and snow man. I gave them props for at least working together. 😉
Yo, I feel ya on the organic butter.
Hahahahaha! I laugh in sympathy. Why do you think I get suspicious every single time Shiva leaves the room? We can never, ever let her roam unsupervised. If we did, I am sure she would have figured out how to open the refrigerator by now.
What a sweet picture
retro rover
Wow Jodi…sorry about the elf…and the pricey butter. Yikes. But be careful, when one window shops, one often goes inside to try out the merchandise.
P.S. If it had been one of those creepy Elf’s on Shelf, then I would of congratulated Delilah.
We keep the tree very basic as well, but because of my cat!!! And no presents under the tree till Christmas Eve/day! By christmas the tree always looks like a “has been”!!! My 2 always love to battle under the tree, bada bing goes everything! Cat’s fault, not Princess!
Your basic tree is lovely! The pic with the fireplace grate is pretty funny.
Rita is usually fine with everything. She knows what’s hers and what’s not. But… our tree this year is especially tempting. It’s a “Dogs at the Beach” theme, and she’s VERY interested in the starfish. I’m planning to post about it for Monday Mischief. Finally! I have some mischief from her!
Mity takes a shine to one present per year and one present only, he will then spend the weeks leading up to Christmas pulling it out and opening it (this present will not be his!) We re-wrap and put it back and he will go back in and get it. He’s very good though, he doesn’t touch the others and doesn’t damage what’s inside. I only spent on Christmas with BD but he has a very firm ‘ah ah’ command which when he hears he knows he is not supposed to touch and will leave it.
Have you pointed out to her that if she isn’t good Santa paws won’t come?!
Your tree is beautiful, but I think the ribbons would be toast in this house…lol. Delilah cracks me up. I bet she is plotting until she can get to the gift under the tree. You know she is!
Smart to gate off the tree. Delilah is so cute as she looks longingly at that present. 🙂 My dogs don’t mess with ours, although Maya’s wagging tail has knocked an ornament off a time or two.
I like the simple beauty of your tree! Callie and Shadow are like Sampson — they couldn’t care less about the Christmas trees we’ve put up over the last several years. When they were pups/young adults, it was a different story, but now that they’re seniors, they don’t bother anything in the house. Ducky, on the other hand, is more like your Delilah. That’s why we haven’t bought a real tree yet. And I don’t want to drag our fake tree down from the attic. I hate fake trees. We got it for a reason, but I don’t remember any more what the reason was. I’d just as soon as toss it in the trash can outside as put it up and decorate it.