It's a Dog-Eat-Shoe World

This past winter, my boyfriend adopted an adorable Boston Terrier mix from an animal shelter. Tara is about 2 years old now and has the body of an adult dog but the energy of a puppy. When my boyfriend runs with her regularly, she is an angel. When he doesn't, she's a whirling dervish of bouncy playfulness. Lately, my boyfriend has not been running her.



This morning I woke up to discover that Tara had chewed up my good work shoes. This was a first. She has been known to eat chapstick and pencils, but has never shown any interest in shoes before. The real travesty is, since I didn't catch her in the act, there's not much I can do in the punishment arena. Phooey.

At my job, I'm on my feet nonstop for eight hours. When I first started looking for work shoes I refused to cave in and buy any of the overpriced "practical," aka ugly, shoes I saw everywhere. Instead, I spent three weeks scouring the city to find a pair of comfortable, supportive, well-priced yet cute flats. Compounding the problem was that I have funny toes, a wide foot and narrow heel. Finding a comfy pair of flats is very difficult for me. And now, after all that work, my work shoes are destroyed...the perky bows chewed off, the patent leather toe fanged, and the rest covered in general doggy slobber. Have I mentioned I'm a cat person at heart? I do love that bad little doggy though, darn it.

Of course, the store I bought my shoes at doesn't carry them anymore, so I can't just buy another pair. And I really don't want to conduct another city-wide search, so I've decided to put my craft skills to good use and fix the mauled ones. My plan is to removed the mangled bows and find a patent leather flower or something to affix to them instead. The fanging on the toe isn't too noticeable, and the worst of it would be covered by the flower. With that and a thorough cleaning, I'm hoping they can be revived.

It's a dog-eat-shoe world out there, and we have to be prepared for such inevitabilities. But with a little creativity, I think my shoes might just pull through to see another day. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and my shoes in the closet.