- A Johannesburg Grade 6 pupil spilt Milo all over his school books while studying during the lockdown.
- His two labradors grabbed the books that were drying on a table and started playing a game of tug-of-war.
- The boy's homework and books ended up being torn to shreds.
The classic "the dogs ate my homework" excuse became a reality for a Bryanston Primary School pupil in a bizarre series of domestic disasters that started with an innocent glass of Milo.
Johannesburg-based nursery school teacher Andrie Krokos told News24 that the home-schooling efforts of her son Chris went to the dogs on 25 June.
Twelve-year-old Chris is in Grade 6 and, like most pupils forced to study at home during the national coronavirus lockdown, is battling to keep up with schoolwork and homework assignments as it is.
But on that fateful day, Chris was not going to get much work done...
Krokos said she had collected Chris' assignments in paper format from the school because he is dyslexic and finds it easier to learn from books as opposed to online resources.
"So we had everything on the table, ready to go, and suddenly he said he was thirsty and went off to get some Milo. He put the glass of Milo on the table on the edge of one of the tablecloth weights and the glass just fell over and the Milo was just everywhere – on every single book. It was just chaos! We were trying to clean it up by shaking off the Milo and wiping it down, before putting the books outside in the sun to dry."
That is when the second disaster struck.
"All of a sudden I hear Chris shouting: 'Ants! Ants!' There were just ants everywhere. Every ant in the greater Johannesburg area decides that it is a Milo party at our house and attacks his books and anyone sitting in their path. We shake them off, sweep the ants out the door and put the books on the table outside in the sun to finish drying them off and for the remaining ants to enjoy their feast."
Enter the family's two chocolate labradors, Max and Leo.
"We were watching TV and then I hear Chris shouting: 'The dogs got my books!'. These dogs are super playful, so as soon as Chris tried to grab the books from them, they just bolted."
According to Krokos, the dogs are used to playing tug-of-war with ropes and other toys, so they thought it was playtime and tried every trick in the book to not let go of Chris' schoolwork.
"They would drop one book and run to pick up the next book as we were trying to grab the books from them – this went on for about 10 minutes."
Krokos posted a picture of Chris' torn-up, Milo-drenched homework on Facebook under the caption: "How is lockdown home schooling going you may ask. Well..."
"This is a classic case of 'the dog ate my homework'," Krokos says, laughing.
Fortunately, Chris returns to school on Monday, so his schoolwork will not end up looking like a dog's breakfast again any time soon.
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