Charlie naps with his Christmas present.

Charlie the Puggle has many redeeming qualities, but he has one big fault: He loves to get into the kitchen garbage can. We’ve solved the problem at our house; we put a child safety latch on the cupboard door where we store the trash can. Ah, but at Grandma’s house, the garbage can is too big for that cupboard, so hers is on the floor, right next to the dog dishes.

Yesterday, she pointed out a folding chair propped against her garbage can. I thought maybe the chair was broken, but she gently broke the news that Charlie had tipped over her garbage can not once, but twice that day. Setting the chair there was her solution to the problem. Earlier I’d suggested that we put a bungee cord around the can and anchor it to the wall, but so far, just getting the lidded garbage can was working. Not any more.

When Charlie tipped over the can, he could get it open, too. Stinker. So after supper, I went out to the garage and found a bungee cord. I took over a “monkey hook” and started work. The bungee cord wasn’t going to fit around the can, so I used the next best thing, which actually looked better anyway: a ring of white elastic from my sewing supplies.

How do I explain the monkey hooks? It’s basically an arched piece of wire with one pointed end. The pointed end goes through the drywall, and then curls up on the back side to anchor the hooked part on the outside. They’re very clever and unobtrusive. We’ve hung calendars and all kinds of things on the walls with them. Anchoring the garbage can didn’t take any time at all.

In the meantime, however, Charlie was communicating something else. He has two long skinny stuffed toys with squeakers that he loves to play with. While I was at Mom’s working on the garbage can, Charlie was taking his toys to the back door as if to say, “I’m running away from home! And I’m taking my toys with me!”

Funny dog. I brought both his toys back home, and he tried picking them both up at the same time. He was determined to take them somewhere. I closed the door and gave him a chew stick. He gnawed on it a while and then carried it around the condo for a while, probably looking for a place to hide it.

And tomorrow we’ll find out if anchoring the garbage can to the wall works.