By Savannah Luckey |ContributorWhen I was a little girl, Santa brought me happiness in the form of a golden retriever puppy on Christmas Day. My sister and I, after years of begging, finally got our puppy. We named him Max and he became our very best friend.A year down the road and he was still our friendly four-legged friend. Although Max was smart, he had a mischievous side to him that liked to flare up occasionally. In all of his shenanigans, this incident was by far the boldest.In our old home, we had a designated computer room. This was where most electronics and other office supplies were held, such as a stapler. We never worried much about Max getting into things because he was usually a very good dog and only occasionally got into trouble or made accidents. While we kept a careful watch on him, my family always had good faith in Max. We never were really concerned about leaving things out, but on this particular day someone had left the stapler out on the desk.Not a big deal, really. Just a simple tool someone forgot to put away. See, staplers are such menial items we don’t make a fuss over them.But on this day, disaster struck. That one act of carelessness led to the following events.Max had decided to be a troublemaker and he snatched up that stapler from the desk and took off. He chewed it up—miraculously managing to not staple himself in the process.But his idea of fun and games turned into the digestion of eight staples. He managed to pry open the stapler and eat the staples inside. When we realized what he had done, I became frantic. I’ve always been a worrier, but the thought of something bad happening to my puppy was overwhelming. My parents assured me that he was going to be alright. They loaded him into the Tahoe and headed over to the vet to examine the stapler’s damage. When they returned, they told me and my sister that he was going to be perfectly fine. No internal damage was done.All Max had to do was relieve himself to get rid of the staples. I was flooded with relief.Fast forward to the present day and Max is still with us, staple-free. He has grown old and learned his lesson through this act of mischief. Through all of these years, I have never forgotten the old stapler story. We are fortunate enough that Max’s mischievous tendencies didn’t cause any serious damage that day, and he has spent the rest of his Christmas mornings with his loving family. Contact Savannah Luckey at SLUCKEY@augusta.edu.