Althouse: #1? Socks!

October 30, 2008

#1? Socks!

Top 10 items dogs swallow the most.

Now, you might think, this shows dogs are idiots, but -- and if you are a dog lover, you know this -- the truth that it shows how much your dog loves you! They eat your socks because.... your socks smell like you.

30 comments:

Methadras said...: My younger boxer has eaten cd's, plastic, tempurpedic foam pillows, my sandals, and so much more. Never anything that belonged to my wife, just my stuff. I think he is part goat because every time we wondered when something disappeared, we would go out back and look at his poop and lo and behold there it is. And he just plods along like nothing ever happened. He has internals made of steel. He's a good boy.; 10/30/08, 11:15 AM
john said...: My dogs loves me? Or, my dog would love to eat me?

Long time dog owner, but I still worry about that.; 10/30/08, 11:19 AM
Justin said...: Now, you might think, this shows dogs are idiots, but ... the truth [is] that it shows how much your dog loves you!

The two are not mutually exclusive.; 10/30/08, 11:27 AM
Tibore said...: Wouldn't it be funny if it were those smaller purse-dogs that most often tended to be guilty of wolfing down socks? I can easily see a big ole 120 lb Great Dane eating my socks... hell, I can see one eating my boots, my jeans, my coat, my couch... but what about some lil dog like a Westie, or a little terrier? That would be high-larious.; 10/30/08, 11:28 AM
Donn said...: Dogs don't "love."; 10/30/08, 11:30 AM
Unknown said...: Clever how they know to swallow only one. Otherwise, there's no explanation for the sock orphans floating around in my dresser.; 10/30/08, 11:31 AM
Spread Eagle said...: Some dogs are chewers, some very destructively so. These are the ones who sometimes end up swallowing what they chew.; 10/30/08, 11:36 AM
Rich B said...: My old lab Dogwood ate part of a rug (he apparently took hold of a loose thread and followed it to a conclusion). This was discovered in the course of exploratory surgery during which the wad of carpet was removed.

Dogwood lived well for another 5 years. I guess my $2500 was worth it.

Our current dogs, Rosie and Jeep rarely swallow anything that isn't food. They are omnivorous chewers - last night Jeep chewed up a guitar pick laying in an open case, while I was watching the Phillies. She could have left me a tip, at least.; 10/30/08, 11:44 AM
AlgonquinS said...: OMG!; 10/30/08, 11:51 AM
Eric Muller said...: Could it be that what all of these dogs are swallowing is actually Bill Clinton's cat?; 10/30/08, 11:55 AM
Anonymous said...: They don't show up on X-rays so they won't make that list but their own vomit and cat shit fished out of the litter box would be on our list.; 10/30/08, 11:57 AM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/30/08, 11:57 AM
UWS guy said...: I guess the movie "Jaws" was about a goldfish that really really liked people. The boat must have smelled like Richard Dryfus...; 10/30/08, 12:01 PM
holdfast said...: "They eat your socks because.... your socks smell like you."

I find that notion, disturbing.

Besides any food she can beg our steal, our pup will only eat paper. My wife had to take the soggy remains of a file to work and explain to the boss that the dog really did eat her homework.; 10/30/08, 12:14 PM
Trooper York said...: A reprise of a comment I posted here on Althouse on 3/26/08:

At Universal, Marie Prevost almost immediately became a huge star of the silent screen. An embodiment of the so-called Jazz Age in films like 1921's Moonlight Follies and The Married Flapper, released in 1922. But her stay at Universal would be short and she soon signed a contract to work for Warner Brothers starting in 1922. While she would only stay with that studio for four years, she would make some of her best movies and would ignite the screen with her overt sexuality. At Warner, she began to make the first of what would turn out to be a 10-film liaison with leading man Monte Blue. Three of her best films would be directed by one of the greatest directors of the era, Germany's Ernst Lubitsch. Lubitsch was a master of the Hollywood sex farce, and Prevost was one of the stars of his breakthrough film The Marriage Circle in 1924.

The first event in Marie's downturn began when her mother was killed in car accident. Virtually inconsolable, Marie began to drink heavily to ease her pain. Also, the Depression had started and just when it mattered, Marie found herself without a contract at a major studio. Added to that was the fact her 1929 film, The Godless Girl, directed by Cecil B. DeMille by the way, was a flop at the box office. And, if all that wasn't enough, her drinking had caused her to put on weight and now in her early 30s, Marie's career was in trouble.

That said, Marie continued to turn out strong performances in most of her films through 1930. Of particular note was her role as Joan Crawford's prison pal in Paid, as well as her superb work as a wisecracking crony of Barbara Stanwyck in Ladies of Leisure. But two years later things had changed. Marie made only four films in 1932 and the last of these had seen her marquee billing slip from star to a supporting role in Three Wise Girls. In the next three years Marie would appear in only 9 films, many of them made for small studios on small budgets. Marie was by now extremely heavy and in an attempt to regain her former status she began to diet. In truth, she stopped eating.

And that's how Marie died. She basically starved herself to death.

Trapped in the home without food or water, her dog ended up by eating her, little by little. Instead of being remembered as one of the brightest stars in the early days of Hollywood, Marie Prevost is usually remembered, when she is remembered at all, because of her tragic death and gruesome end.

On the other hand, she was not wearing socks.; 10/30/08, 12:21 PM
Trooper York said...: I post this periodicly so Althouse doesn't buy a dog. Just sayn'; 10/30/08, 12:33 PM
Tibore said...: Well, you keep the dog outside. Simple enough, really.; 10/30/08, 12:37 PM
Unknown said...: My grandpa's bird dog once ate a bunch of glass-ball Christmas ornaments. Didn't skip a beat.

That was one crazy dog.; 10/30/08, 12:41 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Who among us has never eaten an article of clothing just because it smelled like someone we loved?

I don't usually go for socks, but to each their own.; 10/30/08, 1:43 PM
Methadras said...: Ignorance is Bliss said...

Who among us has never eaten an article of clothing just because it smelled like someone we loved?

I don't usually go for socks, but to each their own.

Yeah, well, you don't have 50 - 200 times the sense of smell that humans have. So if your dog likes how you smell, then eating it, for them, would be all that much better.; 10/30/08, 1:51 PM
integrity said...: My schnauzer is constantly swallowing the squeekers from his toys. He loves to rip apart the stuffed toy, dissemble the squeeker, and swallow the round part that he has separated from the little tip that makes the squeekie noise. Luckily he is smart enough to go barf them up on his papers(that I leave in the guest bathroom for him to relieve himself on).; 10/30/08, 3:31 PM
BJM said...: Well, you keep the dog outside. Simple enough, really.

Dogs are pack animals and unless you have more than one dog you are consigning a single dog to a miserable life by "keeping" it isolated outside and guaranteeing behavioral problems. If you can't spend time with a dog what's the point, get a goldfish.

btw-Socks usually pass through a dog.; 10/30/08, 4:06 PM
blake said...: Floss?; 10/30/08, 4:24 PM
John Kindley said...: I have a cat who is very standoffish and generally a jackass. Rarely he'll come up close and start meowing annoyingly like he demands to be petted, but even then he keeps his distance, like he isn't sure whether he wants attention or not. Basically, his personality sucks, unlike our other cat, who's adorable. It probably doesn't help that he probably knows that we think his personality sucks.

But virtually every day he'll curl up under the coffeetable with his head and paw draped over my wingtips, which doesn't look very comfortable, but apparently that's where he wants to be.; 10/30/08, 4:43 PM
Anonymous said...: "It tends to be things that smell like the owners," said Dr. Jennifer Mlekoday at the West Chelsea Veterinary on W. 26th St. "They start playing with them and then they wind up swallowing them."

The problem is dogs don't have hands. Can't get the stuff out of their mouths.

But dogs are social, helpful creatures and they are well aware of the danger of choking on objects.

I've seen quite a few dogs who have noticed another dog in distress go over and attempt to perform the Heimlich Maneuver.

Cats not so much.; 10/30/08, 6:26 PM
CarmelaMotto said...: blake - I like the floss video. My cats will eat floss so I flush it. One loves chewing plastic and will eat any human food. Anything.

My folks had a dog that ate kitchen towels and bumble bees. My mother would find the towel when the dog ran around the yard in a panic as he was expelling the towel.; 10/30/08, 6:34 PM
CarmelaMotto said...: OMG - forgot about this.

My cat of many years ago ate a wad of hair from the tub. I think it was accidental and only swallowed it to get it off her face. She liked to lick the wet tub and chase the drops after showers.

Anyway, one night she sat strangely and stared at me, then started scooting. That's when I saw the large wad of hair hanging out of her butt. I slowly pulled the rest out!!! She was a little freaked at the sensation and made an odd noise (what the hell?), and I nearly puked.

From then on I made sure the tub was hair free.; 10/30/08, 6:39 PM
Trooper York said...: "Anyway, one night she sat strangely and stared at me, then started scooting. That's when I saw the large wad of hair hanging out of her butt. I slowly pulled the rest out!!! She was a little freaked at the sensation and made an odd noise (what the hell?), and I nearly puked."

Jeeez. I flashed back to my single days. Don't scare a fella like that.; 10/30/08, 7:07 PM
veni vidi vici said...: My cat enjoys an elastic band once in awhile. When he barfs it up a few minutes later, he sounds like the adults in old Charlie Brown television specials.

Both of my cats make a play for floss but they don't swallow it -- instead, I find pieces of the string all over the house. If I discard used disposable contact lenses in the trash, one of the cats eats them too. Strange beasts.; 10/30/08, 7:27 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: This is gross. Two days ago my dog ate my wife's... hygiene product.

I found out when it came out during a walk.; 10/30/08, 9:31 PM