New Mexico Central Moves To The Dark Side
by John Weckerle
There is nothing like the smell of a 5/8 inch masonry bit being driven – at slow rotation and slow advancement – through bone using a large drill press in an unheated garage just after lunch.
Occasionally, Senior Animal Enrichment Correspondent Wilson requires something more physical to do than writing articles or conducting meteorological analyses. Unfortunately, the “all-play-all-day” model doesn’t always dovetail well with the imperatives that operate upon the two-legged members of the staff. Unfortunately, in such situations our contributor occasionally has a way of finding things to do that don’t always dovetail well with the aesthetics of the back yard (while the shelter advised us that he was a “Chihuahua/Heeler mix,” our vet begs to differ and thinks he is a border collie/cattle dog cross. Given that he now weighs in at about fifty pounds, we tend to agree). Such canines need a job to do. Today we came up with a way to keep him amused for a while, and it seems to be working well enough that we thought we’d pass it along to our readers.
Your editor started with a large piece of beef bone we bought at Clarke’s (on Menaul in Albuquerque, across from Harbor Freight). This had a name like “shatterbone” or “hammerbone” or “use me to beat your enemies into the nether world bone” or something along that line. It was among their larger selections – a joint and what looked like half the shank of the bone, with some meat still attached (not a lot; just enough to keep it interesting). Using the aforementioned drill press and bit, it was a cinch (but a smelly one) to drive a hole through the bone a couple of inches below the cut (opposite the joint). I then took a medium-length bungee cord, and looped it around a low-hanging tree limb (actually, a stub of a tree limb). Through the hole in the bone, I looped and tied a piece of 1/4-inch nylon rope, and then attached that to the bungee, making sure that it hung at a height easy enough to grab but not too easy to gnaw. Obviously, I wanted the bungee at the top, where it couldn’t be chewed in half; rope’s cheaper than bungees. Thus far, this has been a great hit.
In our next animal enrichment installment we will detail our next design, involving a fish net, three cats, two quarts of beef broth, and a roll of shop towels. Stay tuned!
3 Responses “New Mexico Central Moves To The Dark Side”
Expect to write and run, heh? C’mon, Pugsley and Shorty want to see the “funny bone!”
So, post the pic already, they know you have it … or better have it.
Well, I’d have to put it back up; he figured it out either late yesterday or early this morning. The trick is to hold the bone down and chew the rope until it breaks, or to untie the knot. With the new snowfall, it’s hard to check and see if there are rope pieces anywhere, but what’s still attached to the bungee looks a lot shorter than it used to. We’ll try it again soon!
Pity. Shorty got tired of waiting, ripped into a bag of IAMS and feasted in real time rather than have a virtual experience.
We caught the dastardly deed before his tummy ruptured.