Shade's Latest Antics.......

Shade's latest "mistake" cost us $164. I took him for a car ride the other day - to pick up Hayley - because you know how much dogs enjoy car rides, right? Well, Shade and Georgette wanted to come along so I let them hop in. Just a short trip, no problem. Hayley wanted to drive home, so I let her. We got back to the house, she handed me the keys and we both went inside and closed the garage. Twenty minutes later, Jeff said "you did bring the dogs home, right?" Oh, shit! We forgot the dogs. They were so damn QUIET when we got in the driveway, we forgot all about them! Jeff went out to release them from their prison and discovered that Shade had gotten himself completely tangled in the rear bench seatbelt that hangs from the ceiling, having done a complete loop-de-loop and was now ensnared in a tourniquet. A tourniquet made of very strong material not designed to "give" easily. We struggled to get him free, resulting in a bite to my hand and Jeff freaking out and finally ordering me to cut the belt! I had SERIOUS reservations about doing that, thinking we could just duct tape the dog's mouth closed, flip him back over and out of the tourniquet and call it a day. But Jeff was getting increasingly frantic so I grabbed the scissors and cut the belt. Yikes. The dog bolted free and the remnants of the seatbelt retracted into the ceiling. The damage? $164 for a new seatbelt and a half hour or so of labor on Jeff's part to reinstall it. I'm not thrilled about having an "after market" seatbelt installed but if we need to test it's integrity, I have just the dog for the job!