I brought home a wonderful pan of fish tacos from Zia Taqueria tonight. It was after 6 and the dogs were a little miffed at the hour and the fact that I was toting food while they were starving from a long day alone without periodic treats.
I, of course, then fed them and proceeded to eat my meal. Delicious.
Having finished in about as long as it took the dogs to wolf down a bowl of kibbles I made for the kitchen trash can with my togo container still containing a few small scraps of tomatoes, some sauce and three spent lime wedges.
Sammy, our 9 year old mutt with a voracious appetite, was all over me like I was throwing away the best part. Like there was a whole taco about to go into the garbage, and if that were to happen he’d be forced to eat something I cared about (book? shoe? heirloom rocking chair?) as soon as I fell asleep.
Being the reasonable person I (usually) am I tipped the bowl down to let him have a look. Slam! Before I could react, two husks of lime were gone. It mattered not that they were little more than rind and pulp, they disappeared with barely a chew and a swallow.
My first reaction was, “what the… Are you crazy?” As I waited for the ack-ack spitting out that wasn’t happening because he swallowed them pretty much whole.
The next thing out of my mouth was, “damn dog, that’s going to hurt coming out the other end. And I’ve got to clean it up.”
But considering what he eats on any given trail walk, or when he happens to get into the trash, I doubt it’ll have any impact on the next time I’m done with a meal and heading toward the sink. I know he’ll look at me with sincere distrust when I say there’s nothing left.
And next time I’ll be a little more careful with how I present my evidence. At least one of us has to learn.
