Humans say “trick OR treat” – implying the two choices are mutually exclusive – but if you’re a little Beagle boy you really can have both.
Biggles demonstrated this to us a couple of nights ago when returning from his evening walk. Just as he trotted up our drive with Susan and The Beanster, he spotted a little poo-present left by one of the local cats.
It was a wholly unexpected find. Biggles regularly hurls verbal abuse at every moggy he sees, except that is for the one at the nearby farm, because that one is really big and scary and could probably beat him up. And yet, despite all that inflammatory woofing, one public-spirited feline still decided to leave a little poo as a belated birthday gift for his lordship. Or maybe it was for his sister Beanie, given that her birthday was more recent, but the fact is that Biggles found the poo first and therefore, under all accepted versions of the Beagle Book of Law, it was his, and he pounced on it.
Where a less experienced Beagle might simply have swallowed it whole, Biggles snacked on only a part of it, thus getting the “treat” part of the Halloween combo while still keeping enough left over for the “trick”. Once safely inside the house, he waited until his lead was unclipped then marched to the rug in our hall. The rug is a chaotic mix of dark and light coloured rectangles, but Biggles knew he had to target one of the lighter bits if the trick was to be truly successful. Before anybody could stop him, he spat out the remainder of the cat poo, lowered his shoulder and started to fall into a roll. I say “fall”, because his rolling technique isn’t what you’d call a precision manoeuvre. Nevertheless he managed to hit the poo square-on with his shoulder, not only rubbing it into his fur, but also into a cream-coloured portion of our rug. Perfect! Treat AND trick, all from the same bit of poo. And Beanie never got a single bit of it.
Your Biggly Boy cracks me up. Of course it was on the cream colored part of the carpet. That is “Beagle Book of Law” as well.
He is a smart one for sure. Can’t believe he risked his sister stealing his “prize”.
When ours have something they are not supposed to they honker down, turn into stone dogs, and will not release or even trade for their prizes.
Buzz and Cassie both have a penchant for cat poo unfortunately; they know where every cat toilet is on Oakwood!! Cassie likes rolling in Chanel for dogs, otherwise known as Gooey Poo. Love ’em!!
@Sue: Yep, Biggles is definitely the “ideas man” in our little Beagle pack.
@Julie: I count myself lucky then, ‘cos Beanie & Biggles tend to prefer the regular, firm stuff for rolling. If they went for the gooey stuff, well I might just lose my lunch. And then they’d no doubt roll in that too :)
Oh, lucky you!! Ours always gobble it down and wouldn’t think of saving any for later, thank goodness! Of all our beagles, Ringo is turning out to be the poo maniac. Any kind, anywhere, he will find it and eat it. Interestingly enough, he doesn’t always immediately snarf it down, sometimes there is delicate tasting before gobbling, like a connoisseur of fine wine. “Hmmmmm, a bit fishy, with a subtle feline hint”. Meanwhile, Lady has been cleaning up the dropped or discarded Halloween treats mixed in with the fallen autumn leaves in our neighborhood. The good news is that children apparently don’t often drop chocolate, but I’ve been yanking taffy in its hot pink wrapper, lollipops with sticks, and other assorted goodies out of her tightly clamped little jaws (Note: apparently, eating Smarties does not make beagles smart. We tried, nothing doing.)
Sounds like Biggles & Ringo have a lot in common! He occasionally does the “connoisseur nibble” too, and I can rarely predict which poo is going to tickle his palate the most.
And yeah, street walks have been a pain since Halloween here too thanks to all the dropped treats!