My Dog, Eli, Ate My Lens!

It's not like I'm not used to it, my dog likes to eat my stuff.  My earbuds, my remote controls, my money clip and any of the money that's in it, almost anything that's laying on my nightstand or within reach on my desk.  So I'm normally pretty good about keeping things out of his reach.

Without thinking last week I left one of my prized Olympus lenses lying on the corner of my desk inside a small pouch (to protect it from the elements or from taking it in and out of my bag or pocket, not from a large canine putting his strong jaws to work on it).  Later the next day when I was packing up my photo gear to go out and shoot I realized that I didn't see my 12mm lens.  I looked in the bag I had out yesterday and not there.  Looked on the table where I keep all my lenses and gear neatly organized and not there either.  I start to panic wondering what I had done with it and began frantically going through my coat pockets and tearing around the house.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a small black something tucked in-between the cushions of the green living-room sofa.  Oh no.  This is where I found my Klipsh earbuds a few weeks ago.  No, it can't be.  As I got closer I knew that Eli had found my lens and took it to his favorite place to chill and chew on stuff.  I pulled the black bag out of the sofa, unzipped it, (thankfully it was still in one piece, and pulled out the beautiful silver Olympus 12mm/f2.0 lens.  Well, not so beautiful anymore.  Now marred with teeth marks and scratches.  I almost threw up on the spot.  That lens is expensive and I can't afford to replace it.  Of course Eli is laying on the floor in front of the fireplace just chill-axing and taking a little snooze.  Oblivious of the pain he has caused.

I removed the chewed up lens cap and the rear cap and luckily didn't see any teeth marks in these two critical spots.  I ran upstairs to get my camera and mount the lens on to see if it would still function.  Much to my elation it did.  Focus, manual focus rings, locking mechanisms  everything still functioned perfectly.  I took a few quick snaps to be sure and yes, it still works perfectly.  It's just ugly now.

A few minutes later Eli wakes up from his blissful slumber and comes upstairs to my photo-room to say hi.  Walks up to me as he usually does, dropped his head in my lap and looked up at me with the same usual demanding I rub his head and say hello look.  What could I do.  The damage was done.  And he's so sweet.  I rubbed his head, told him hi and promised I would go to the grocery store and get him some bones.  Maybe that will help.

And I promised myself to be sure and keep my things out of reach of Eli since he can't seem to resist a good chew on my stuff.  And even though my lens is ugly now it at least has it's own story.