[PyrNet-L] Re: Counter Pirates and Favorite Treats

[Victoria Green <vgreen@abbeyeast.com>]

Hi all!

Reading about what your Pyrs are snitching off the counters brought me a
big warm fuzzy -- my late lamented Pyr Pola had the most bizarre tastes
of any dog I've ever had.  She ate cucumbers, pineapple, tomatoes -- she
particularly liked grapes, but only if you bit it in half for her
first.  Yes, she was very spoiled.  Peel me a grape, Beulah!  I will
never forget making a very elaborate from-scratch caesar's salad for a
dinner with friends.  I did the freshly grated parmeasan, the grilled
chicken strips, the real homemade caesar's dressing w/ anchovies, mucho
garlic, the whole nine yards.  Pola had never ever ever taken anything
from the counters or the table, and she was about 18 months old at that
point.  So, without even thinking, I left the kitchen for something or
other, & came back 3 minutes later to the funniest sight.  There's my
dainty girl, standing at the kitchen table, arms flat out on each side
of the bowl, head completely hidden by the bowl, looking like she'd
gotten drunk & passed out bobbing for apples.  When she heard me walk
in, she looked up with the best innocent look she could muster, but any
hope she had of passing this off as an Important Investigation Required
for Protecting the Household was ruined by the lettuce on her muzzle &
the chops licking she couldn't hold back.  I laughed so hard I thought I
was going to pass out, especially when she barked & you could smell the
garlic breath from 5 feet away!  (My mom said the big no-no was elbows
on the table, but....)  We went to a restaurant that night instead. <g> 
Fortunately, Pola didn't find much opportunity for counter/table grazing
after that, so as far as I know that was the one and only time she ate
from the counters or the table.  However, she loved salads from that day
on.  She also liked to eat bees.  If they ever stung her on the way
down, I never heard about it.  We decided the bees were the Pyr version
of Pop Rocks (the exploding/fizzy candy).  She must have had a cast-iron
gut, b/c she also ate autumn-blooming crocuses (colchicum), which are
very poisonous, with no problems whatsoever.  She was also fond of a
rose called "Sheer Bliss" (must've been named by a masochist) that has
lots of huge, pointy prickles all up & down its canes.  Not 1/2 inch
uncovered.  When I wasn't looking, Pola used to chew the canes & keep
the bush pruned for me.  I still don't understand how she did it -- she
never had bleeding gums, or a torn tongue, or thorns stuck in her
anywhere, & I really looked!  She was an amazing dog. Sigh.  Happy news,
though:  The litter I hope to get a puppy from is due June 7!  I've got
some names picked out, but can't decide among them till I meet the pup. 
Can't wait!  Thanks for giving me a Pyr booster-shot till then!

-- Vicki

-- 
Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
(A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants.)
vgreen@AbbeyEast.com