One December night, when Duffy was about nine years old, he sat in the family room and watched as Wen was unpacking and setting up her Dickens Village houses. When all of the buildings and accessories were placed just right on the bookshelves, she ran a heavy duty electrical cord over to the power strip where all of the buildings’ cords were plugged in and lit up the village.
It was a spectacular scene with the overhead lights turned off and with her project completed, Wen started taking the empty Dickens Village boxes to the basement to store them.
All of a sudden, there was a loud “BANG” from the family room!!!
Wen ran back upstairs to the family room where she found a dazed Duffy and a burnt electrical cord where he had obviously chomped on it. She checked Duffy’s mouth for burns and surprisingly, there were none. He was just dazed for a short time and then he “shook it off” and walked away.
Of course, Duffy had chosen the heavy duty cord to bite and it was a miracle that he ultimately suffered no ill effects, so Wen quickly reworked her Dickens Village wiring and made sure that all of the cords were out of the dogs’ reach.
Duffy was a very lucky dog that night and he survived what could have been a horrible tragedy. Wen learned a valuable lesson about leaving an electrical cord plugged in where the dogs could get to it because if the opportunity is there, a little “dickens” will eventually take it!
Duffy, the “Dickens”
