Siena, the Pill of Apartment 44

I had no idea what a smart and opportunistic dog we had until my mom came to stay with us! In the past 10 days Siena has managed to steal the following from the kitchen table and counters:

-- half a small loaf of bread

-- 2 large pieces of cheese

-- 1 big rugalach cookie from Zabar's that was hand-carried to Moscow all the way from NYC

-- 2 small Russian meat pies (partially eaten)

-- 3 semi-cooked pork sausages
-- countless socks and several shoes from the floor and laundry bin in mom's room

This fantastic pill of a dog figured out that mom was making all sorts of delicious things in the kitchen and stuck real close by, waiting for the perfect moment to attack. And because mom was multi-tasking between taking care of Beau and cooking (giving me a break because of Beau's horrible jetlag) there were lots of opportunities.

This would all be marginally funny except that:

• we wanted to eat those things ourselves;
• it's enough of a hassle to get good food in Moscow without having to worry about your dog stealing it;
• the fact that it hasn't happened to us before now embarrassingly highlights how little cooking I've been doing (sigh. oh well.)...and;
• we live on the 8th floor, so the, ahem, 'side effects' of eating all that people food are kind of a pain in the neck for those of us who have to take Ms. S outside to do her business!!

Needless to say, Siena has lost all her kitchen privileges and her food / water dishes have been moved to the living room so she has no excuse for hanging out in the kitchen.

Done and done.