H.B. gets a bum rap

We put the tree up over Thanksgiving but it was another two weeks before any ornaments were hung.  In the days following, I had several discussions with H.B. about how the Christmas tree was not his personal source of chew toys.  Breakables go up high but he seemed to like this one wooden ornament in particular -- a cheap unicorn that came in one of those sets of wooden ornaments that we got for cheap for the tree I put up when I was in college!

H.B. now knows that his toys are really all in his toy basket and there is nothing on the tree meant for him.  He does learn his lessons fast!

I had been telling friends that H.B. is the first pup we've had that has ever stolen ornaments off the tree.  Then this morning I realized I needed to publicly apologize to H.B.  Gusto and Harley never ever had the opportunity to take ornaments off because we only put up a mini tree and that tree sat out of reach on top of their dog crate.  Anita was a teeny tiny pup at her first Christmas and she was really just content to sleep under the tree.  Ava would have stolen ornaments (since we thought she was channeling Gusto) but her Christmas was during our big re-model -- we were living with our in-laws at the time and they put a mini-tree on top of a table because there were 4 large dogs in the house.  I honestly don't remember what Quail did but I would really be surprised if she didn't steal ornaments -- we think she has surpassed Gusto in scootch factor.  And now we have H.B. who has stolen ornaments but does drop them when I tell him to and he hasn't broken a single one.

That honor goes to Harley whose tail knocked an ornament off the sofa -- a little glass ornament of a penguin playing a grand piano that I believe came from the blown glass shop that was in the Honeycomb section of the Staten Island mall -- and if you can remember that section of the mall, we won't talk about how old you must be.

The reality is that the cats have broken more ornaments than any of our puppies.  Both Harrison and Olivia liked to take ornaments off the tree and drown them in their water bowls.  Bad kitties!