Old Dog / New Tricks

The dog will be 13 in May. Since moving to Brooklyn, he has learned to jump on the dining table, even though he is only about 16 inches high, by first jumping onto the chairs. On the table, he has been known to find food, particularly bread, until we wised up and stopped leaving it there. Now he just seems to jump up on the table for the hell of it. Because he can.

Yesterday, when I went out to see friends and Jarek was working, he jumped onto the table and then off, on the way down apparently dislodging the lid of the mini galvanized garbage can where we keep his food, a few feet from the table. Discovering a bounty of dry dog food inside -- I had just opened the bag a few days earlier -- he ate his full, perhaps half the 4.5 pound bag, and then staggered off to start digesting. We were afraid this might mean another expensive midnight trip to the dog ER, but he seems OK, if a little lethargic.

And who says dogs aren't smart?