I haven't made this clear enough...

.. in the past, so I'll get it out there now -

I - HATE - THAT - DOG!!!

The peppermint creams I spent all last night dunking in chocolate went down a treat, by the way - with Maddie!

3am - hearing a muffled bark and alert as always to the possibility of trouble, I shot out of bed and went to see if Maddie and the cat were facing off. I found Maddie sitting up in her crate, holding - yes, you've guessed it - a neatly-tied plastic Pudsey bag in her mouth, with Mars Bar Crispies in. She growled in a half-hearted manner as I took it off her - she knew she'd done wrong! Just how wrong was about to be laid bare...

Beside her in the crate were the remains of about four or five - now empty - Pudsey bags. NOOOOO!

I shot through to the dining room (I'd left the results of the last three nights' work neatly tied up in those bags, ready for sale at the Guides' Children in Need coffee evening tonight) and the devastation was clear even without my glasses. One of the chairs had been left pulled back from the table - leaving her an easy stepping stone onto the table - and there were several more empty, ripped bags on the floor.

I've never actually felt like crying over her shenanigans before, but last night was the night! I can just imagine her walking the length of the table, picking one, carrying it all the way back to her crate, devouring the contents and back for another one. Lord knows how long this had been going on - all night, probably. I don't know why she picked out the bags of peppermint creams first but they are ALL gone - 50 peppermint creams dipped in chocolate. If I hadn't come down the Tiffin and the Mars Bar Crispie would undoubtedly have gone the same way.

And by this morning (although she was bouncing off the walls as a result of eating about a pound of icing sugar), she hadn't even had the decency to be sick!