FROM AN EVIL, house-eating dog named Spanky to a young couple who gave their parents quite a start, readers today share more guest troubles and travails.

Sheliajean Colosimo of Spotsylvania County said that when anyone mentions the concept of problem guests, she remembers a pit bull puppy named Spanky.

Spanky belonged to her younger brother Paul, who ended up on her doorstep after Paul's wife of three weeks threw him and Spanky out.

Feeling sorry for her brother and remembering a sweet, beloved pit bull puppy the family had years earlier, Colosimo took the odd couple in.

The problem wasn't Paul, it was Spanky, who by turns chewed through the house and performed bodily functions indoors.

The first night, the family awoke to find a minefield of messes.

Things quickly got worse, and Richard Colosimo woke his wife.

"I walked room to room in disbelief at the carnage," she said. "[Spanky] destroyed, or ate, every cable that had been connected to our computer."

It continued: "He destroyed a wicker umbrella stand. In the living room, he had gotten a large flower arrangement off my coffee table. He chewed up two candles, made confetti of the phone book. And all over the bathroom was the remainder of three rolls of toilet paper he demolished.

"Sitting in front of the refrigerator was this Puppy from Hell, wagging his tail."

Paul cleaned the house, and found the dog a new home.

"My brother went home to his bride and we have never, ever let anyone stay over again with any pets," said Colosimo. "Now, we laugh about it. But back them I could have gone to prison for what I wanted to do."

Brenda King of Spotsylvania remembers a very different sort of run-in with guests, her daughter and the daughter's then-boyfriend.

It helps to know that all ended well. Her daughter and the boyfriend in question have now been married for 14 years, have three children and live in Europe.

But years ago, when that daughter was a junior in college, she told her parents she would be bringing her boyfriend home to meet them at Thanksgiving.