Cookie Monster--Counter Surfer

Yesterday, Rex sniffed out a cookie leftover from my Subway lunch lying on the kitchen table. How could he smell the melted chocolate chips through the plastic?

My first warning of this was the wrestling sound of plastic. I rushed to the kitchen in time to see Rex hurtle through the living room, torn plastic streaming behind him.

I chased Rex around the room, cookie and plastic in his mouth.

"Drop it!" I said.

He looked for an escape route. I walked closer. He turned and dropped it. Then he dug the paper-covered cookie out of the plastic.

"Give me the cookie," I said.

This command only made his jaws clench more firmly. I pried at his teeth. Chocolate is bad for dogs. What if he got sick? I kept pulling at the sharp incisors but to no avail. He wanted that cookie. Who wouldn't? Whether chocolate was good for him or not, he was eating it.

Just a week before he had caught a squirrel on our walk. He didn't even kill it. And he dropped it within a few seconds of my saying, "Drop it!" But this incident would end differently. Cookies are already cooked. The squirrel was not ready-to-eat.

I pulled at his teeth again.

"Drop it!"

I tore half of the paper-covered cookie from his mouth. Then, like a snake wolfing down a mouse, he promptly gulped down the remaining half of the cookie.