In the early morning hours of a cloudy Homer day, a lone, blonde cocker spaniel called Anne slithered across the street, up the driveway and onto the deck of a neighbor's house to find an incredibly full trash can with a plastic lid. With her nose in control and leading her way, she was somehow able to push the trash can over, popping off the lid and spilling out some indescribably delicious morsels hidden among the trash wrappers. She was tenacious like aways, in her attempts to root around for all things food.
Missing from home for approximately 30 minutes, the dogsitter knew Anne must be up to no good and went looking for the blonde cocker who notoriously has no self-control where food is concerned. A lazy, tri-colored 15-year-old basset hound called DoDog, another chowhound at dog camp, got up from under her warm blanket to go out and investigate under the guise of needing to pee, knowing full well she was missing out on something good. She immediately started meandering up said neighbor's driveway, alerting the dogsitter of a likely scenario.
As the dogsitter followed DoDog up the driveway hot on the trail, she saw a sheepish, blonde cocker frantically licking and smacking her lips as she scurried toward home with the basset hound in hot pursuit wanting to smell those lips. And the mess left for the dogsitter extraordinaire (met in the driveway by the neighbor) to clean up, well, it was unbelievable.
So now the behavior will have to be squelched as all dogs are opportunists at heart and communicate well to each other. The dogs at TBTB Dog Camp now know about the trash escapade and the lurking of all things good just a few steps away. Every time they are out for a pee they will remember and hustle back over there in a nano-second given half a chance.
The good news, if there is any. . . Well, it's a good thing it was a dog in the trash on the deck, and not the black bear that has been seen in the area. Things might not turned out quite so well had that been the case. Currently the dogs are on lock-down until the trash cans can be secured from any further attempts to dismantle the lid, and feast on the findings. Once they know it is no longer an option, they will quietly go outside, do their business and hustle back in for their breakfast. And things will once again return to normal at dog camp, until next time.