Charlotte, beauty or beast?

This is Charlotte, our nine month old American Cocker Spaniel.  When we made the decision to get a new puppy, we did not think about traveling with a young puppy in the future.  It is funny how we tend to forget all the "puppy" stuff when we see that sweet face and hold her for the first time.  Charlotte has very unusual eyes.  As you can see, her eyes are not dark but are gold/green, and she has pink markings around her nose and mouth.  Her eyes give her a very human look that can melt your heart.  She is lively, sweet and loving.


She is also a chewer.  When we were still in our house, her favorite targets for chewing were the door stops.  She would pull the white rubber tips off and chew them until they were flattened and useless.  They were small and to keep her from destroying all of them, we just removed them until the house sold and then replaced them all.

In the RV however, she has new targets -- wires.  The first week after we moved into the RV, Charlotte noticed a tiny bit of wire protruding from beneath the platform of the bed on Jim's side.  It was barely visible so how she noticed it was beyond us.  We came home to find that she had scratched at it until she could get a hold on it with her teeth.  She then pulled it out and proceeded to chew it in a number of places exposing the wires.  Fortunately she did not get a shock or maybe it is unfortunately as perhaps it would have stopped her from doing it again.  Poor Jim, it took him quite a while to remove the mattress and platform so he could trace the wire and make repairs.  Not a fun day for Jim.

We have taken extreme care to make sure there is nothing she can get too when we are away from the RV.  We have an electric blanket on the bed with dual controls.  Yep, you guessed it, there are lots of wires.  On each side of the bed, there is a space where these wires fit nicely out of the way.  Usually, as a precaution I put a pillow over the opening just to keep Charlotte out of harm's way.  Yesterday, I forgot and when we got back Charlotte had found the wires and chewed them rendering my control useless.

Today, we returned to find Jim's wires on the floor chewed and useless.  As you can see, she beheaded the poor things and exposed the remaining wires.  Now Jim has the chore of trying to make repairs making sure that he gets the ground wires and the live wires in the right place.

This poor fire extinguisher fell victim too.  Remnants of the black wall bracket can be seen and the pin is laying on the floor.  She has worked on it for a while now, amazingly it is still functional.  It has almost become a joke when we come home to find the pin and replace it.

I gave Jim this bottle of special Scotch for our anniversary last year.  It came in this decorative wooden box.  This week, he finally finished drinking the last of it and placed the box by the door to take to the trash.  He forgot to take it out and when we returned, we found the corner chewed by Miss Charlotte.






Oh, I almost forgot the blind on the front door.  Charlotte likes to look outside when we are away and when she could not see out, she chewed the lower blades trying to create a view.  She also has destroyed four brackets that hold the blind in place when we are moving.  One original and three replacements.

It seems that no amount of Bitter Apple spray keeps her from enjoying a good chew.  One might ask us why we put up with it.  Perhaps we would be better served finding her a new home.  But, what to do?  Her beautiful human looking eyes continue to melt our hearts every time we look at her.  But the beast that keeps chewing and destroying things make us wonder if perhaps we made a mistake in making her part of our little family.  But, then again, she makes of laugh and brings great joy as we travel the adventures of life.