I’m convinced that my dog Piper has opposable thumbs which are retractable and only come out when we aren’t looking. Wolverine style. We’ve joked for a while about how she is a monkey dog, but I’m starting to think there may be something to it.

She’s a 25 pound crazy looking red mini golden doodle who is only 19″ tall, but her legs are quite long. And she can pull things off the counter from quite far back using a cupping technique with her paw. For real. And clearly, her grip is quite good.  I’m thinking she’s going to borrow my car one of these days.

On a regular basis I find remnants of her ‘counter surfing’ (which apparently this breed is known for) under our dining room table or in the backyard in a certain spot – her trophy areas. Tupperware lids, cottage cheese containers, butter tubs, packages from full bags of bread or bagels, cream cheese – you name it.   She’s even gotten plates off the counter and they’ve survived thanks to our kitchen rug. All I have to do is walk away from the kitchen counter for an instant and she goes in for the kill. She does this so stealthily that I usually think I’ve put whatever it is away already in the fridge or pantry. (I’m going to refrain from making an Alzheimer’s joke here since it ain’t no joke in this house.)

Last night I accidentally left the Cambozola cheese wedge (good size) in it’s wrapper on the counter after cutting a bit of it off to set out with crackers and grapes. Again, she came in so fast after I turned away that I didn’t think about it. Plus I knew I had pushed it almost to the back of the counter. So when it wasn’t on the counter when I returned five minutes later I figured someone had put it away.  Nope.

Before bed last night we found the complete empty Cambozola cheese wrapper (as well as a full size TRAY someone used to eat dessert on- not sure how she pulled that one off) under the dining room table.  Note: this cheese is a triple cream blue-veined cheese. And she ate a lot of it. A recipe for a gnarly dog mess for most dogs.

I heard a couple screams from the kids before bedtime when they caught a whiff of her breath. One son even offered to bathe her, it was that bad. It was ugly.  But amazingly, she never got sick.  We know from experience when she ate a full tub of mink oil shoe conditioner that she has an iron stomach. (That episode involved a very expensive vet call.)

And this time was no exception.  For this, we are grateful.