Pastor Ed’s Blog

Wendell

For those of you who don’t know, we added a new member to our family recently. His name is Wendell. He’s Welsh. And he’s a terrier.

He was born on September 11, 2006. We got him from a breeder in the Ozark mountains of Arkansas when he was 3 months old. He flew first class on American Airlines (well, the first-class section of the animal compartment). He’s a pure-bred Welsh terrier (although I think he’s part kangaroo).

He recently graduated from K-9 Obedience School (apparently with a D-). He didn’t take to a leash and collar too well, so we had to get him a special training collar with spikes (yes, the spikes are on the inside of the collar). Janet calls it his  Jack Bauer collar (named after Jack Bauer on the TV show 24, who tortures someone every week).

We’re presently trying to break him of a paper fetish. He loves to eat paper products–tissues, napkins, toilet paper, paper towels, newspapers, and his latest catch…a diaper. Now, we don’t often have diapers in our house anymore, but at a recent Welcome Class held in our home Wendell managed to find and snatch up a complete diaper…a loaded one.

We tried prying his jaws apart to no avail (I think he’s part crocodile). We tried offering him a Milk Bone treat, hoping he’d drop the diaper for the bone. Somehow he managed to get the bone in his mouth and hold on to the diaper too!

For 20 minutes we chased Wendell around the house trying to extricate the diaper from his mouth. I had just about resigned myself to letting him eat it (after all, diapers are biodegradeable now days), when Janet offered him his favorite rawhide bone. With lightning speed, he let go of the diaper for a split second, scooped up the rawhide bone, and was about to snap up the diaper again. But I was too fast for him: I snatched the diaper up, narrowly escaping his snapping jaws.

So much for maintaining any shred of pastoral dignity with the new people attending the Welcome Class!