Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Scavenger Pups


When we rescued Lucky from All Creatures Great and Small back in 2004, the shelter manager told us that Lucky and his sister Katie had been found running along a road as 4 month old pups. Lucky's propensity to eat anything, and his extreme skill in "scavenging," has caused me to wonder about this more than once over the years. How long were they out on their own, foraging for food? A few days? Or was it a couple of months? Who knows, maybe it's just because they're dogs. I'm used to German Shepherds, and they are notoriously finicky eaters.

Like brother, like sister. Katie demonstrates the same razor sharp ability to hone in on a morsel of food from a hundred yards. Last week she found a turkey eggshell in the front yard. Even though it had already been cleaned out by some critter, I didn't particularly want her eating it. So I took it from her and tossed it into an inaccessible location. Or rather, what I perceived as an inaccessible location. No matter where I tossed that eggshell over the next several days, Katie found it. And she's SO sneaky about it. I don't even notice her grab it, I just happen to glance down and notice that her mouth looks strangely full as we head down the sidewalk. "Katie, do you have something in your mouth?"

I'm never quite sure until she gives me that little sideways look, avoiding direct eye contact, mouth puffed out, the picture of guilty innocence.

Last night I was filling Lady and Lucky's food bucket from the 40 lb. bag I'd lugged up from the garage. I use the scoop to save my back, and Katie quickly discovered that this method is a bit messy and imprecise. Ever present to help in such circumstance, she was quick to grab any wayward pieces of kibble that fell or ricocheted down the hall.


That is, until I had the bucket almost full, at which point she discovered it was much easier to simply eat off the top of the heap. I don't know what was funnier, seeing her take advantage of this situation, or witnessing Lady's consternation at the whole improper affair.


I swear, they make me laugh out loud sometimes. As funny as this was, I had to interrupt Katie's scavenging extravaganza before she ate the equivalent of a second dinner. For the sake of fairness, and to ease Lady's crinkled brow, I provided all three dogs with a small handful of kibble bites. Funny dogs!

9 comments:

  1. Too cute! Our dogs have discovered that food falls from the scoop too. They are so focused on me when I feed them, just looking for little bits to fall!

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  2. HA! "witnessing Lady's consternation at the whole improper affair"...love this! :-)

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  3. We love waiting for foods to fall
    Benny & Lily

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  4. Hahahahahahahahaha!!!!!! I remember Lucky doing that too! Just not the eat off the top part!

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  5. One of our dogs was living on his own for quite a while before we adopted him and he too is a super-scavenger.

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  6. Mine toss a mouthful all over the floor, then eat it or walk away from the crunchy kibbles. Always fun to step on with socks on my feet!

    Katie is so sweet looking . Glad she is reunited with her brother.

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  8. Jessie used to do that! Her preferred method of eating was to take a big mouthful from her bowl, carry it over to the dining room rug and drop it onto the floor to enjoy it there. I've never had another dog do that, before or since.

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