VERY Bad Dog

Oscar almost burned down the house last night.

I don't think this was his plan, but since my VeryBadDogs work pretty hard to live up to their name, I'm going to give him credit for the near outcome rather than his intentions.

Oscar's housebreaking is a bit uncertain. We don't exactly know how to fix this, because when he goes in the house he sneaks off to do it, so we can't catch him in the act. But this means that we have to react pretty quickly when he gets up in the middle of the night.

Last night I heard Ominous Oscar Noises, and turned the lamp on in a hurry. Too much of a hurry, as it turns out - I nearly knocked over the lamp (a gift from my mother, so I don't want it damaged) but managed to get it righted and rush the dogs outside.

When we got back in, Max started acting funny. I noticed the room smelled like candles burning or something - but it wasn't candles. It was my lamp. When I nearly knocked it over, I'd knocked the shade onto the bulb. So the shade had melted to the bulb, and was rapidly turning brown.

So Oscar narrowly missed surpassing Max in the Very Bad Deeds competition (eating Aaron's glasses is still #1), and that's definitely a good thing. I just hope he doesn't keep trying. I could use a good night's sleep.