What do eggs, tomatoes and a trash can have in common?

 

  

Let me first say that the tomatoes and eggs are at the edge of my kitchen counter and the trash can is in full view in the kitchen.  It’s the first time in TWENTY years that I haven’t worried about a dog “counter-surfing” or digging through the trash! 

Yes, I’ll admit… it was a training issue with Josephine…. but then 20 years ago, I knew nothing about actually training dogs so over the years she trained me.  Everything that smells like, looks like or tastes like food – out of reach!  I was very much in the habit of putting things in or on top of the refrigerator.  But I’m not perfect, you see, and I remember her eating a box of raisin bran (eeewww – stinky), a bag of bagels (bloated), half a container of Nestles Quik (hyper), uncooked rice (bloated again…. I could go on… And trash cans… under the sink with a lock…

Josephine and Kobie overlapped by about 6 months and I was now in a rhythm of putting things away.  Sometime after I lost Josephine I realized she had a protégée – Kobie - who took great satisfaction in scoffing up what she could and running out the dog door into the yard or woods to dine on her catch.  White “to-go” boxes were her favorite I think because she never knew what was going to be in them…. and, actually, it was quite beautiful to see a black dog running across the yard with a full mouth bite around a white “to-go” box!     I tried to explain to her that they were for me “to-go” home not for her “to-go” out!   Kobie’s pancreatic insufficiency didn’t help the matter any and I reasoned that her drive to eat would override any training so I chose to continue to do what I had done for so many years.  Things I do recall:

• coming in the house to find the pot of brats that I was boiling for treats all gone and 2 girls (Brita and Kobie) licking the floor.
• making spaghetti for a friend who was stopping by, going to greet him and then realizing that Kobie was alone in the house with the spaghetti (in a covered dish on the counter)…. yup… no spaghetti!
• remembering I got eggs out to hard boil hours later because the entire 12-18 eggs and the container were gone and for me it was a case of out-of-sight  …  out-of-mind.   (no she didn’t eat the container but it was somewhere in the yard.

So… now I have a trash can… it’s open sometimes and not a problem… I am amazed!  I leave things on the counter… and they don’t disappear… oh my gosh…  I hardly remember those days!  …but for sure…. I miss you Josephine and Kobie….