[Dailydrool] Our Elsinore and old book glue

[Elizabeth Lindsey]

Since writing about our Elsinore's uncharacteristic brush with  
darkness in the form of chewing my late father's old book, two people  
have contacted me off-list to tell me that book glue used to be made  
with animal parts, in some cases horses and in some cases rabbits.  
All of a sudden, Elsinore's inexplicable and shocking naughtiness is  
a whole lot more explicable.

Our Elsinore isn't a naturally destructive dog, which is primarily  
why her seemingly wanton destruction of a book was so upsetting. She  
cares very much about what we think and values our good opinion of  
her enough to want to please us. It's a trait we noticed about her  
from the very beginning. She's always put a lot of energy into  
reading our nonverbal signals and trying to give us what she thinks  
we want. She craves approval. Unlike young Charlie, who couldn't care  
less what we think when he destroys things and positively rejoices in  
his own naughtiness. He seems to perceive most scoldings as a form of  
applause for what he's done, and he'll twinkle his eyes and dance  
around merrily as we holler at him. Such two very different  
personalities!

However, while Elsinore won't counter cruise or touch food she's been  
expressly told to leave alone, she isn't above taking advantage of an  
opportunity in the form of unguarded food. If no one's told her not  
to touch it, she'll grab what she can and wolf it down. So now,  
knowing what Droolers have told us about the ingredients of old book  
glue, it makes all the sense in the world that she would be drawn to  
that particular book, perceive it as unguarded food, and sample it.  
We're now looking at the crime scene entirely differently--Elsinore  
completely ignored the stack of current paperbacks on the floor in  
the same room, and she chewed only the spine of my dad's book and not  
its pages the way Charlie would have done. She was eating glue and  
not, in her mind, destroying a book, which would have involved  
ripping out pages and tearing up the covers. This kind of adds a new  
dimension to the classic warnings against eating library paste!

I'm now feeling a little badly for scolding her so much the other  
day. She didn't know the book was not unguarded food, and I didn't  
know she wasn't seeing the book as just a book. Not knowing about the  
glue, I saw only bad behavior that confused me and left me absolutely  
flabbergasted. That a hound with such good manners and self-control  
would do something like that! When one is so stunned and baffled by  
the completely unexpected, one sometimes overreacts. Elsinore  
certainly felt I overreacted, but she's a big enough basset to let  
bygones be bygones, and life with its car rides, walks, and nighttime  
snuggling on the sofa, has resumed as usual around here. Except that  
Ken and I are being a whole lot more careful about not leaving old  
books lying around within her reach. Anything with a pre-1960  
copyright will be kept up high or in the bookcases with the glass  
doors from now on.

Elizabeth