Cayenne Cocktail

Uulaq is a baaad dog this week.

We have a drainspout on the back porch that actually goes underground to a pvc pipe, then comes back up to the surface at the bottom of the yard. There's a filter/cap on the end of the upturned pipe, so when it rains, the water can drain out into the grass, away from the patio.

Well, Uulaq discovered that if she pulled off the cover, she can drink the disgusting, greenish, stagnant water that sits in the pipe (we haven't had rain in a while). She has clean water available, of course, but seems to prefer this icky stuff.

After a few rounds of putting the cover back, the Adorable Husband went out and secured it with a few screws. No way the dog could pull it off. I predicted that it would just be an escalation in the attempts to get at the water -- and I was right. It took all of an hour for her to realize that the green cover wasn't going to come off any more, so she simply dug up the end of the pipe and pulled off the ell entirely. I looked outside to see the beastie drinking water out of the huge hole, with the cover -- and it's securely-attached-screwed-on-pipe -- flipped up into the grass.

Next round -- concrete. The Husband dug out underneah the pipe, put in some brackets to hold it down, and poured concrete around the whole thing (with a new, screwed-down cover). Well, Uulaq was out there before the concrete dried, trying to dig it up. She managed to eat the middle out of the cover and gouge the concrete pretty well.

The Adorable Husband was out there last night with about a cup of cayenne pepper, to mix into the sludgy water. Hopefully she gets a snootful and decides that it's not worth digging up again.

Probably not. She'll probably just think, "hm. Rather zesty today, isn't it?" and keep right on going. I can't decide if she's smart, stupid, or just determined.