Of Dogs, Birds (and Bacon)

Some amusing things have happened lately; at least some of them were amusing after they happened, if not so amusing during the experience!

I stopped by my favorite little local pet store to buy some doggie food and chatted with the proprietress, Sue. She told me about her two new pet birds who they have had for only about a week. The amazing thing is how social the birds are, not only with Sue and her husband, but with their dogs. They have four little tiny dogs. It amazed me to hear how one of the birds actually enjoys dropping food down from their perch to one of the tiny dogs who waits below on purpose to catch the food. The bird walks over to the edge of its perch and drops a blueberry, a piece of apple, and so forth! Then the dog eats the blueberry or whatever, from down below. I thought this was amazing inter-species interaction. It's not like the bird is just clumsy and drops its food; it is dropping the food on purpose down to the dog. Wow!

Pondering this story in my head, I arrived home soon after. It was evening, and after a long day at work and feeding sheep and running errands. I came inside the house and went back to the bedroom to change clothes. Ryme suddenly started pouncing at something and he then flushed a (wild) bird out from under my bed! Oh my! I quickly got Ryme out of the room and opened up the patio door to the outside. The bird then promptly walked into my closet. (No I hadn't closed the closet door - dumb.) So I herded the bird out of the closet and out onto the floor again and then it saw the open door - thankfully! It hopped on outside and I thought I saw it disappear into some taller cover. Whew! Bird disaster averted! And no this does not happen often to me, and no I have no idea how a bird got in, nor do I know what it was doing in the house all day.

A few minutes later I was still trying to do those things that you need to do when you get home in the evening from work, like start preparing doggie dinners and so forth. I heard a ruckus out on the deck. It was Spot, pouncing on and playing with the poor bird. After I gave Spot what-for, the bird hopped away and I hoped it sought some better cover in the dark, this time. I have not seen it since.

About this time it felt like I was living in a zoo and not a home! Where is the order? Where is the doggie obedience? It went out the door with the hopping, lost bird, I think!

Speaking of lost order, the last tasty tidbit is regarding a certain hunk of (four slices of ) bacon that a certain 12-year old dog ripped out of my hand over the weekend. I was not exactly dangling it over the doggie's head going, "here, doggie, doggie", either!

Is this the face of a Bacon Grabber???

I guess the bacon just overwhelmed 12 years of obedience and order. I ripped those four slices of bacon right out of his mouth although he got about one-third of it swallowed before I got it back. It is not a great way to start your day, standing there with a hunk of half-dog-chewed bacon in your hand and looking incredulous. I can't imagine the disarray that there would be if I had two pet birds on top of this zoo that dropped food to the border collies...oh my!!!!!!!