Almost enough to make me feel sorry for him

Almost.

As dogs go he's a pretty good one. His one weakness has always been food - he's always been a voracious eater, with a nose to die for (if only I could convince him to make it work for anything besides food I'd have one of the best tracking dogs in the country) He's been on a diet recently - so food's a bit more of a priority for him these days. Many of you may recall his fondness for mints - specifically peppermints - developed at the tender age of 4 months by a local old-timer in siberian huskies who gave him altoids at a dogshow (thanks Jan!). Every time I go to Sonic, the minit is his, and I even have friends who save and give me their after-dinner mints for him, so notorious is his liking for mints.

He really couldn't help this one.... I know he couldn't.

His nose is never wrong... ever. If his nose says there is one tiny bit of kibble under his crate pan, he will tell me, and I invariably must get him out of the crate, lift the pan and enable him to eat the morsel or it drives him nuts all night long.

Poor dear.... he just doesn't understand about things like essential oils and how things can SMELL like one thing (i.e. his beloved peppermints), and yet not BE peppermints. A friend of mine made a trip out west just days ago and brought me back four bars of my favorite hand-made soap, peppermint scented, and I set them on my nightstand as I was heading out the door just that minute, thinking I'd put them up later and, well, I'm sure you can see where this one is going. As I went to bed later that night I walked in to see a bar of soap in the middle of an otherwise clean bedroom floor... paper off one end, and two tooth marks in the soap... Definitely one of those times I wish I'd seen the expression on his face upon that odd discovery.

Poor baby. I didn't have the heart to punish him further. I imagine the mouth full of soap for the curse words he uttered during that discovery was punishment enough. You guys may think I'm nuts, but my dogs do talk to me - especially him, my heart dog. He came over as I picked it up and looked at me, looked at the soap, looked back to me, and clearly asked me how such a thing possibly be. How could it smell so much like his favorite treat and yet not BE his favorite treat.

I'm not sure he understood my thoughts, however I did give him a *real* peppermint in exchange.

I really think his poor little world was rocked today - by soap.


*This reprint was originally posted on my lists on 7.29.07