Welcome to WTF Wednesday. The day where I read and review news stories about animals and generally ask WTF was the human thinking?
You’ve heard this one right?
43 socks. A three-year-old Great Dane ate 43 socks.
I have so many questions. SO MANY.
Do these people pay attention to the dog at all? Whose turn was it to watch the dog? Who does the laundry in your house? Didn’t you wonder where all those socks were? How many pairs of socks do you own? What was the time frame, I mean did the dog get up one morning and eat 43 socks? Did the dog stop eating his regular food because he has a sock fetish? And finally, last but not least, WTF?
Let’s look at these questions one by one.
Do these people pay attention to the dog at all? I mean wouldn’t you notice? The dog has a sock. The sock is gone. Where is the sock? Hey puppy, I see you have a sock in your mouth. Shit, where’d that sock go? You didn’t eat that sock did you?
My reality. Sampson was being playful last Thursday. He had the little squeaky from one of his toys, he picked it up in his mouth and threw it to me. I threw it back. We did this three or four times. Then I threw the squeaky and he opened his mouth, but didn’t toss the squeaky back. I screamed, “Drop it, drop it” and shoved my hand in his mouth. The squeaky was not there. I called the vet. As I was on the phone waiting to find out whether I should make him vomit or not I found a little squeaky on the floor. Both Hubby and I are fairly certain that he did NOT swallow a squeaker. But it’s filed in the back of my mind, just in case he starts acting weird. (And for those of you who are curious, the answer is do not make him vomit. Vomiting could cause the squeaker to lodge in his esophagus on the way back up.)
Sorry, my point is, I was watching my dog!!
Whose turn was it to watch the dog? I blame the wife. I mean we all know women pay more attention than men do, men are easily distracted, especially if the TV is on.
My reality. Me to Hubby, how did this paper towel get torn up? Hubby, I don’t know. Me, what do you mean you don’t know? You are sitting right in front of it! Hubby pausing the TV, hush woman, The Big Bang Theory is on.
Who does the laundry in your house? Wouldn’t the person doing the laundry notice socks were missing? Hmm…looks like Sally wore one sock this week. NOT!
My reality. Me. I do the laundry in the house. I pay attention to what I’m washing. When I’m short a sock I know about it. Shit, come to think of it, where is that blue sock? Delilah, Delilah, baby girl, come here!!
WHAT? Socks? Siriusly? What dog in their right mind eats socks? Ohh..it was a Dane you say? Well that explains it.
Didn’t you wonder where all those socks went? Like, hubby goes to work every day, every day he changes his socks. You do laundry once a week, why then aren’t there fourteen socks in the laundry?
My reality. Gee I know Hubby wore a pair of socks every day this week, how come there are only three in the hamper? Where’s that damn dog?
How many freaking pairs of socks do you own? Where do you store them? Do you have a dresser just for socks? Inquiring minds want to know.
My reality. I barely have enough socks to last me a week. If I were missing a dozen…well I wouldn’t have any.
What was the time frame, I mean did the dog get up one morning and eat 43 socks or did this happen over time? Gee, I’ve been noticing that Fido has come out of the bedroom every morning for the last month with a sock in his mouth. Where does the sock go? Or gee, did you see the six packs of socks I just opened? I know I put them somewhere.
My reality. When my dogs have anything in their mouth I’m paying attention. Delilah, drop that cookie! I said drop it and don’t even think of trading it for a napkin. Napkins are designed to wipe the outside of your mouth, not butt floss for the inside.
Did the dog stop eating his regular food because he has a sock fetish? I mean, socks are material. Material absorbs fluid. If you add two plus two to forty three, I get that stomach has no room for kibbles.
My reality. Delilah does not eat her food. Shit, I better call the vet, something is wrong with this dog.
WTF? No really, WTF? I could see one sock, maybe two, but forty three?
Funny enough, the owners of the Great Dane declined to identify themselves I’m not surprised really, a dog that can eat 43 socks could probably win a pie eating contest.
Apparently this story was submitted by a veterinarian for a contest called “They Ate What?” The scary thing is a rock eating frog took first place. I’m not even touching who was watching that frog.
Yup, I saw the story and I had pretty much the same reaction you did — WTF?! — love your post about it though. And my reality? Hubby’s about as observant as, well, as yours. Only with mine it’s either MSNBC, CNN, or sports. The dog could be choking and he wouldn’t notice. That’s why we (us?) Dog Moms have to have eyes in a full circle around our heads, not to mention our butts!!
We have to say we thought about who the heck does the laundry over there and did they not wonder why the sock monster was working on overdrive? Some people shouldn’t have socks let alone a dog LOL. Gosh do they have kids? Have a wonderful Wednesday.
Best wishes Molly
My reaction is the same as yours except for about the number of socks (we do have a lot of socks!) If I was this dog’s owner, I wouldn’t want to be identified either! WTF is right!
I feel this is a friendly, none judgemental place (ha) so I am going to own up that as a puppy Mity once ate a mitten. He picked it up on his walk and threw it around. We didn’t take it off him straight away as he used to like to carry things, he would steal socks when he wanted a game of chase and leave them if we didn’t follow him. However that morning he decided he wanted to eat the mitten and it went down in one a bit like a seal swallowing a fish. The vet was called within minutes!! That many socks WTF kind sums it up nicely
43 seems insane unless he went on one massive binge while the owners where at work and ate them all at once. Norbert once destroyed, our couch while I was at work. The stuffing was shredded thankfully he didn’t get sick at all. He is also an underwear eater. I keep the underwear hidden away but everyonce in a while he gets one and eats it. I know about it write away though and usually get it away before it is eaten once or twice he has thrown up a bit of underwear, same with paper towels. However, he has never needed to go to the vet for it. Weve been lucky
retro rover
OMD! You would think the weight alone would have been a sign! Mom loses a sock maybe once a year but usually finds it somewhere because one of us stole it to play with, but if we at 43, she would not have any socks left to wear. Some people pay no attention to their pets. Mom is more of a helicopter pet parent which is frustrating sometimes but a good thing too. She usually knows exactly what we are all up to. Amazing WTF story!
The worst of this story is that it is NOT the FIRST time that the dog had eaten MULTIPLE socks…
THEN there is the fact that this made the NATIONAL news… and with NO reprimand for the OWNERS (I would NOT call them his PARENTS, like we all are) of the poor Dog.
I don’t know. If you have a dog who eats things, you don’t always know what they have eaten. It sounded like the dog just got into the laundry. I know of a dog who ate a bunch of rocks and the owner was watching for it. Sometimes dogs are dogs and eat things they should not. That being said, the reason we crate the dogs while we are out is to guard against this kind of thing.
So true! Barley has vomited up 2 pennies and a few rocks in the past. We live in an apartment, so she doesn’t go outside unless she’s attached to me on her leash–I never saw her eat any of those things! And since she’s reactive, I watch her and her environment like a hawk! (Although, I think I would definitely notice if I started missing that many socks when I was trying to pair them up on laundry day!) I have a coworker who constantly says, “Well, I’d rather have my dogs than my stuff” when the pets get into things, but the crate let’s me have Barley and my stuff–and I know she’s safe.
My friend posted the picture of all the socks on my timeline stating that at least Gambler wasn’t this bad. I know what gambler gets into. The same questions arise that you had and I love the way you went through them. Some people should not own a animal at all.
LOL. exactly!! I saw that news flash the other day and had to wonder too.
I’m with you – WTF? The number is what gets me…43…? Does this mean the vet took out 43 socks…and counted them? Yikes.
I wonder if this is a situation where the people knew the dog ate socks and they thought it was funny. How many YouTube videos have you seen of just this kind of thing?
It’s hilarious until the dog looks sick. ;(
Love your commentary on this story. It does sound pretty fishy that one dog could eat all of those socks and it went unnoticed. I read another post earlier this week about a dog that ate 24 hair ties that belonged to the little girl in the family. The owner had no idea about it until the hair ties showed up on an x-ray.
I had kinda assumed he got in the laundry and picked out all the stinky socks, not stolen them slowly over time. Howver, that still leads to questions… 43 1/2 socks = 22 pairs, which is 3 weeks+ worth of socks. Although, maybe it’s a family of 4, in which case it would just be like a week’s worth I suppose.
I also of course thought of my novel, “What the Dog Ate”, and wondered if ALL those socks belonged to the owners… cuz if not, someone would have some ‘splaining to do!
That makes me think maybe he was one of those dogs allowed to wander the neighborhood, and he was stealing socks off everyone’s clotheslines! He’d be tall enough to reach….though you’d think they might have found some clothespins in there too. 🙂
WOW!!! Definitely a WTF post!!!!!!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
I think our washer manages to eat a sock once or twice a month, but never 43. Did he just eat them in pairs and they didn’t notice that nothing matched up any more? I’ve tried to stop writing about stuff dogs swallow.
Expensive way for the owners to learn a lesson… bet the dog is still eating socks, though.
43! I can’t even imagine!!! Maya has scared me a few times when it comes to eating something she’s not supposed to. I shudder to think about how many acorns she’s managed to swallow on our walks. Goodness knows I’ve used the drop command enough times.