Dog Food Fun

Life with a two-year-old is never dull. Just as soon as I think I can take my eye off Carter and maybe take a deep breath or watch a commercial all the way through, he reminds me that’s not really an option. Last night, wallowing in my whale-like state, I was laying on the couch with half an eye on the TV while Carter decided Winston needed some more food. This is a regular duty of Carter’s that I have helped with and supervised many times, so it was nothing out of the ordinary and meant that I wouldn’t have to do it later.

He’d bring each cup of food over to show me before dumping it in Winston’s bowl, proud that he had figured out how to scoop it himself. I could hear he was doing a great job, and I hadn’t heard any pieces fall on the floor. After a few rounds of this, I figured the bowl was probably full enough, so I told him to do his last scoop, and then put it away. He dumped the last cup in, and then I could hear him rustling around with the food in the bowl. He hadn’t solicited my attention for a while, never a good sign, so I jelly-rolled off the couch to see what was up.

There is a heat register on the floor near where we keep the food and water bowls, and Carter had pulled off the cover and dumped the majority of the contents of Winston’s food bowl into the vent tube. He pointed at it and said proudly, “Food in hole!” At first I was terrified, picturing food rolling through miles of HVAC in our house, blowing the smell of dog food through the registers every time the heat kicked on. In my best attempt to not scare Carter, but to let him know the seriousness of the offense, I said through clenched teeth, “Nooooo, Carter. We don’t put food in this hole.” He could see in my face that I was not happy and slowly backed away to show he wouldn’t try it again.

I assessed the damage and realized that luckily the vent tube took a pretty sharp horizontal turn shortly past the opening, so I was able to scoop out most, if not all of the food (and a lot of dust bunnies) without too much trouble. With my back turned to Carter, all I could do was smile and know that this wouldn’t be the last time Carter would find a way to anger, surprise, and tickle me with his creative explorations.