Sunday 29 November 2009

The case of the Missing Prawns (or the wickedest whippet in the world strikes again...)


Arrghhh!
I thought I was being so clever this evening but she’s gone and done it again. My pesky whippet puppy has eaten all my prawns – and I hope she gets a very poorly tummy. Though saying that, if she does she will probably land up regurgitating the whole lot on my bed knowing my luck!
Oohhh!
I had been very indulgent and had bought - dare I say it? - a ready-made Chinese meal the other day. Beef and Black bean sauce, egg fried rice and crispy prawns with sweet chilli sauce courtesy of those goodly people at Waitrose. I was so looking forward to it, wrong we were both SO looking forward to it.
This evening I had it all sorted. Dear Charlie was soaking in a bath trying to warm up – poor chap is feeling a bit crook and awful cold. I was going to surprise him with a real treat, which we could eat in front of X Factor.
Everything was done for once and I was ahead of myself. The children were fed and in bed, chickens were all shut up for the night, laundry was done, table already laid for breakfast, washing up done. All I had to do was slam the dinner into the oven for 25 minutes and Bob’s your proverbial Uncle.
However, the prawns did not take as long as the sauce to cook. The idea being that you place the sauce in first then half way through place the prawns on a baking tray separately so they don’t go soggy.
So what to do with the prawns for the seven minutes before you place them in the oven? Of course, put them on a separate baking tray and leave them on the kitchen counter high enough, you think, to be out of reach of the dogs.
I hadn’t counted on EBJ’s tenacity had I? Nor on her ability to problem solve. In fact I keep forgetting she has a brain. I must admit it is not one of her most attractive qualities. The other whippets are blissfully brainless – that or they have better manners and/or are not quite so greedy.
However, I leave the kitchen for a few moments to check on Dear Charlie and tell him supper will only be ten minutes, and when I return everything seems fine. Nothing has moved, there are no tell tale marks to indicate anything is wrong. The baking tray is where I have left it but because I don’t go right up to it I fail to notice that there is nothing there until it is time to place the prawns in the oven and they are gone, not a crumb has been left. For a few moments I am bewildered. I question my actions and run through exactly what I did and come up with the conclusion that I must have put the prawns in the fridge. But they are not there. I am genuinely puzzled because there seems to be no way the dog could possibly have half inched those prawns without making an awful lot of fuss or else flying and I had heard nada, nothing, not a dicky bird. I only left the kitchen for two minutes - if that.
But as the Great Sherlock Holmes stated “when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth”.
All I can say is, I have no idea how she could have done it. She is not a cat and to have leapt up 90cms to land on top of the counter which is only 30cms in depth without breaking anything or pushing anything off is incredible.
By a process of elimination I can hazard a guess as to how she might have achieved it but the complexity of the solution seems a bit beyond a ten-month-old whippet.
However this is what I think she did: she walked away from the counter top to the other side of the table where there was a chair slightly pushed out. She climbed on the chair and jumped onto the tabletop. She then walked along the table and jumped about half a metre onto the counter the other side of the oven from where the prawns were sitting. She then walked back along the counter, jumped over the hob without knocking over any of the pans upon it and ate the prawns on the baking tray. Then she retraced her steps. And quietly curled up in her basket.
If it wasn’t for the fact that she happened to have a few tell tale crumbs round her muzzle and for once looked particularly guilty when I glared at her, I swear I would never have known.
I am afraid I reprimanded her for all of two seconds. She seemed so abjectly sorry and it is so out of character for her to show any remorse at all that she was swiftly forgiven.
Dear Charlie mutters that the dog is a serious weasel and is not to be trusted ever and that this is just another ruse to add to her repertoire. Needless to say I suspect he is right. But she’s so cute…

15 comments:

SmitoniusAndSonata said...

Well they were crispy Waitrose prawns ! Had they come from Aldi , she mightn't have bothered .

Maggie Christie said...

She's cute and clever, but only a beginner. My dog fetched me a whole lamb yesterday. He had it by the back of the neck. It only got away because he let it go to woof to tell me he'd caught lunch. Oh the shame.

Anonymous said...

Very impressive! A whippet-cat-burglar in the making!Can you start posting her through neighbours' windows to see whether she can learn to retrieve Waitrose goodies?

Pondside said...

That's a story to go down in family lore!
We once had a huskey that nabbed a whole turkey waiting to be carved on the kitchen counter. The same dog tried to bury a pound of butter between the sofa cushions - for later, perhaps?

Tattieweasle said...

SmitoniusAndSonata - don't you beleive it! She really has no discrimination at all.
Preseli Mags - Oh Oh! We've managed to avoid livestock as such although she did try to play with a lavender chick who promptly died of fright - poor Sassy couldn't understand why it did not get up as she pushed it with her nose.
Mud - actually that's quite a good idea..problem is would she retreive or just woof the stuff down herself?
Ponside - Eeeuuw butter between the cushions. She hasn't taken to burying her finds yet possibly because there's too much competition with the other dogs...I will admit though, that I am getting increasingly nervous about Christmas!

Anonymous said...

Naughty puppy then! They don't half make life complicated don't they!

CJ xx

Trish said...

Came over to look at your post as you are a fan of Mon Avis Mes Amis whose posts I adore too! Loved your doggie post today - your style of writing really appeals. I'll pop myself down as a "follower" so you can entertain me some more!

Kitty said...

Crikey - a quick round up and I find very naughty dogs; stropping, yet angelic, boys; cockerel murder - I dare not read further. Tattie's world is a dangerous place to be (and busy and exhausting sounding!

Liz (LivingwithKids) said...

And our puppy has just weed on the bed for what feels like the 50th time. Grrr. Admire whippet's skullduggery, at least she's not making it difficult for you to sleep.

Michelloui said...

Oh but what an adorable whippet she is!!! At least you'll have a good story to tell for years! I love pets and their stories--fun post.

Tattieweasle said...

CJ - they surely do. But I'd not stop having them around!
Trish@Mum's-gone-to - Thank you and welcome and of course no pressure on me then to keep on being entertaining; it is one of the nicer bits about blogging and if I raise a smile then it is a pretty good day.
KittyB - nah it's very sleepy: honest!
Liz (Livingwithkids) - oh I do feel for you it seems that they will never get clean and you feel so guilty if you bollock them 'cos after all they are little. It does work out in the end - a bit like children I believe. And as for waking me up; have you tried sleeping on a bed with a pack of whippets???!!!
Michelloui - she is adorable especially when she's alseep like she is now!

Vic said...

I know in the photo she looks like a dog, but are you sure you've not got a cat there?

menopausaloldbag (MOB) said...

Part Whippet, part squirrel!

arosebyanyothername said...

At least you could replace the prawns,either with more prawns or somethings else but what do I do with half a chewed sofa? Of course I exaggerate - not half the sofa but quite a lot of one cushion. And not just any sofa but a M & S sofa. What is it with Whippets?

Tattieweasle said...

Vic and MOB - I am serioulsy considering a DNA test!
Arosebyanyothername - heaven only knows what goes through their minds but I suspect it is a whippet thing. At least it's not Jimmy Choos!

Go on you know you want to...

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