Dogs Accidentally Turn The House And Themselves Completely Red

Jeremy Eskelsen and his husband went out for several hours one day and left their dogs, Harlow, Lola and Dogma, at home alone. Usually, that’s not a problem at all, but the pack must have been feeling extra mischievous that day. When the couple arrived home, they immediately realized that something was off. 

“There was the massive red ‘drag streak’ across the floor,” Eskelsen told The Dodo. 

Their first thought was that maybe something had happened to the dogs because they hadn’t run to greet them at the door like they normally would, but upon further inspection, they realized it was because the dogs were the cause of the huge mess their house had suddenly become. 

“They were hiding in their kennels,” Eskelsen said. “The moment we saw all of them were not hurt, we were just so happy everyone was OK, we just knew they were going to ‘get away with this,’ with us half mad and half laughing. I found, wedged into the crack of that (now) orange chair — a large bottle of the chalk line refill.” 

Apparently, there had been a can of chalk line refill dust under the sink that the dogs had somehow found and quickly spread everywhere, including all over themselves, turning everything a shade of orangeish-red. The house was red, the dogs were red and, despite the destruction, the couple couldn’t stop laughing at how absurd it all was. 

Harlow and Lola both have darker fur, so the red dust didn’t affect them quite as much, but Dogma is white, so her fur had been completely dyed. 

“After the dogs realized we weren’t going to kill them, they came out, heads down, tails wagging low, slowly crawling out of the crates,” Eskelsen said. “When we saw Dogma … We both just started howling. She looked so funny! I commented that I was sure her being totally orange meant this was her doing. Mike insists that she was probably trying to be a good girl and just got the blowback from the fan — because she’d never cause any trouble! I’m dubious.” 

As the couple surveyed the damage, they quickly came up with a plan. They sent the dogs off to the groomers to get bathed and hoped they could clean up the house in the meantime. They figured the dust would just vacuum right off, but they quickly realized it was going to be a little more complicated than that. 

“We thought since it was just dust, a vacuum would take care of it — but that’s when we noticed, much of it was a lot more … paste consistency,” Eskelsen said. “As we investigated, they had peed in the chalk, walked in it, and then walked it all over the house. We found some other wood and metal polish creams and waxes that had also been walked all over the floor and chair and couches.” 

Thanks to the dogs, the house was very red, and it wasn’t going to be easy to fix. They had to throw out their couch and chair, and even after tons of cleaning, the floor still had a reddish tint. Eventually, they tore that up too. Apparently, the whole thing had just been a message from the dogs that they really thought the house needed a makeover. Message received. 

The dogs came back from the groomers nice and clean — except for Dogma, who still had a bit of a reddish tint to her that took a while to fade away.

Despite all the work it created, the couple still thought the incident was pretty funny. but are also definitely taking steps to make sure it never, ever happens again.

“We still laugh about it,” Eskelsen said. “We did eventually have the floors pulled up and replaced with tile, and the dogs have their own tiled room now, behind a baby gate, for when we’ll be out for too long.”