The dog ate my homework

In elementary I remember a girl, with a side ponytail, an overly large shirt that was tied at the side and leggings, telling our teacher her dog ate her home. Did she really just say that? I thought. It obviously was the same thought the teacher had because she didn't buy it and her name went on the board.

It has been well over fifteen years and I think that I somehow inherited her dog. No my dog, an Akita, didn't eat my homework, she ate a book. Cover, pages, spin and all. This isn't the first time she has done this but the fourth. The first time was my brand new bible. (You should have seen the teenagers faces when I told them the reason their Sunday School teacher didn't have her bible. It was priceless.) All of the books she has eaten have been kept on a book shelve but since she is so tall she is able to get them and pull it off. I’m thinking about buying a safe to put my books in but that would have to be one really big safe.

When I got home to discover the book in shreds on my bedroom floor Megg, the dog, was sitting at the backdoor with her tail and head tucked not making eye contact. I asked "what did you do?" and she laid down not wanting to look at me. *Sigh* thank goodness this is the only problem I have with her otherwise I would find a new home for her. But I can't. The way she protects the kids and our house is something that I will never part with. I just wish that she had a thing for grabbing bags of bread off the counter to eat, like my good friend Holly's dog, instead of $20 plus books.

Now I'm just wondering if one day my kids will have to use the same excuse that girl did so many years ago. "Um Mrs. Fill-in-the-blank, my dog ate my homework. No really! She did!"