"BAD dog!"

I was upstairs putting Mason down for a nap when I heard Mackenzie shouting--no screaming-- at Ellie. The screams quickly turned to tears and, as I reached the top of the stairs ( a no longer drowsy Mason in arm)to find out what was going on, Mackenzie was already at the bottom of the stairs on her way up.

" Ellie ATE my nature!" . The tears were coming faster now.
" Your nature?"  I had no clue what she was talking about.
" My LEAVES! That I collected on our walk! "
Sure enough, I could see leaf bits scattered about the room below, a guilty looking Ellie chewing a stem near the stairs. I attempted to diffuse the situation, apologizing that Ellie had eaten her nature and reminded her that dogs eat things when they're left around and ended with a promise that we could later collect more leaves. Thinking this solved the problem, I resumed the nap time ritual but could still hear Mackenzie lecturing Ellie down stairs. I couldn't make out much of what she was saying from Mason's room upstairs but every now and again I would hear her shout " That's a BAD dog!" . This went on for a few minutes before Mack forgot about the eaten roughage and all was calm.

Fast forward a few days and Cass and I are sitting in my living room and I am telling this story to her. Ellie had found a comfy spot on the chair behind me . As I began to rehash this story, Ellie became uneasy and when I turned around, had buried her head in the throw blanket on the chair. This must have been a very traumatic event for poor El:

Poor girl