running out of mildly creative titles...

It is a commonly accepted fact among dog owners, breeders, and trainers that one should never alter the routine of a German shepherd. This is why, on car rides, I usually appropriate the front seat in our minivan, and the back seat in the car. There's no room for Prada to sit on the floor of the back seat of the car, and it's a little tighter in the front seat, so I put a towel across half the back seat bench for her to sit on and I sit next to her. In the van, however, she can curl up at my feet on the floor of the front seat. The other day, though, my sister got to the front seat in the van first so I decided we'd try the back seat. There's plenty of room for Prada on the floor back there, right? I slid the door open and told Prada to hop up. Well, she did...right up onto the back seat! The other side of the seat was full of junk so she took MY spot. "Prada..." She looked so darn cute, all perky and smug and ready to go! I shooed her off and made her ride on the floor so I could sit down and she looked quite offended.

This morning, while wrestling with Prada and trying to convince her not to chew off my wrist I had a sudden revelation, followed by a stroke of genius from my mother. I was wearing one of those cloth wristband things they sell at Hot Topic or Claire's for the goth wannabes (no, I'm not a goth wannabe, I just happen to like the wristband) and Prada seemed content to chew on that, which gave me some protection from her jaws. When I showed this to my mother she had the bright idea of making fingerless gloves, like what we wear for skiing and then reinforcing them with canvas or denim and making the wrist-coverings a bit longer. Lion taming gloves? No, but close enough so that I don't run the risk of often being mistaken for a chew toy. I tried using one of our fingerless gloves and Prada was quite pleased with the thing, after she figured out what it was. She tried to pull it off to kill it but I wouldn't let her and eventually took it away so she wouldn't destroy one of our nicer ones.  We're going to make doggy-safe gloves to save my wrists. Mom asked what colors I wanted and I said black but she thinks I should use neons and fluorescents so I can find them :P
I never did get around to making these fingerless gloves, but we came up with a different solution a few days later.