Nose to the ground on a new mission

One of the hazards of walking around our local area is that Flossie finds some interesting and occasionally unsavoury items.

This can be a problem for many inquisitive dogs. It’s always been a theme with Flossie. My theory is that it’s because she was born and lived in the wild in Cyprus for the first few months of her life. She had to fend for herself so, to her, any discovery is a potential food source. She covets pieces of cardboard and her absolute favourite delicacy, the used tissue.

So, we both walk around scanning the ground. Flossie for edible treasures. And me for potential dangerous objects.

Once, she got lucky and found a discarded baguette. She clamped her jaws around it triumphantly but it was so hard that she could barely chew it. She persevered until the bitter end. 

Another time, I noticed blood on her nose. I was horrified. She’d tried to pick up a shard from a broken jar of peanut butter. The cut made a lot of itself and I rushed her back home, thinking we would be heading straight to the vet. However, somehow it had healed itself and luckily there was no sign of any injury. 

She’s got better about giving up her treasures to me. On one walk she found a dead rat. This was definitely not something I wanted her to keep. She dropped it when I bribed her with a few treats. I grimaced as I scooped it into a poo bag. I carried it quite a way until I found a bin. It was surprisingly heavy. 

Her willingness to share her findings went up a level this week. As we walked past some railings, Flossie lunged forwards and retrieved an entire and quite fresh-looking croissant. Even I could see its appeal. She passed it to me gently as if to suggest it might be nice with some apricot jam. 

I dropped it in the next bin we passed.

Nice try, Flossie.  

As seen in the Bath Chronicle, 23 May 2024