I always believed that Beanie could make a person drop food using the power of her mind. She would sit ever so neatly just within the peripheral vision someone eating, and stare at them intently. After a few seconds, even if the person was seemingly managing to ignore her, there would be a moment of miscoordination – a slip that would send a little morsel falling to the floor – and in a flash The Beanster would be there to consume it.
Last week Daisy proved to me that she also has mind control powers. It happened on the morning she’d barfed a portion of her breakfast onto our bed. After putting the bedding in the wash I gave her a small supplementary breakfast by way of compensation – not an easy thing given that Monkey has a sixth sense for detecting food handouts – but it seems I didn’t quite give her enough. Later during the walk she began nipping my calf through my jogging pants. This is something that Daisy has done routinely on walks since she was a pup, and I always take it as a signal that she wants a little moment of affection. I stop, she stands up on her rear legs and I bend down to meet her, and after at least 30 seconds of ear fondling, bonce kisses, tummy tickles and wagging, she’s ready to resume the walk. This little ritual has become so well ingrained that it’s almost muscle memory: stop, bend down, soppy exchange with Daisy, and off we go.
This time however my unthinking response was different. I stopped and looked down into Daisy’s eyes but before I could do anything else, my free hand had retrieved a biccie from my pocket. I stood looking at it, puzzled as to why I’d done it. Getting a treat out of my pocket is usually a very deliberate action, something done specifically as a reward for good behavior, yet there I was – biccie in hand – in response to Daisy’s “show me love” request. Of course now that I’d got the biccie out there was only one possible follow-up action: split it and serve it up to the pups, which I did. I pondered on the incident as the walk continued, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that somehow this “get biccie” response had been implanted in my mind by a hungry girl who’d barfed her breakfast that morning.
Hmm… need to keep thinking of that brick wall, or there’s no telling what she’ll have me do next time :)
