Old Habits Die Hard

Ever since she was a puppy, Venus has had an affinity for bread. Pizza crusts, bagels, baguettes... any hard, crusty bread turns her into a sneaky hoarder. A few years ago she lost bed privileges, and one of the hardest things that went with that was the "silly dog" smile that swept across my face as I'd stretch my hand under my pillow and come up with a covertly buried pizza crust. She won't eat the bread, she just wants to keep it. And when she buries it, she doesn't like for you to notice what she's doing. The cutest part about the whole deal is when she uses her nose to cover the bread up. She used to stand on her blanket while trying to shove it over the bread and then smoosh it down on top of it. It was a futile exercise, but she thought she was really accomplishing something. One day, just before we moved, I caught her burying a pizza crust outside. Hilarious.

Since we don't have much of a yard here, and since she's already been hauled in once for meandering about unsupervised, she doesn't get the hoarding opportunities she used to get. But somehow she still finds a way to feed her habit. On Friday, as we walked around the block so she could go potty and I could pick up her hot poop (going to the bathroom in front of people is also something she's had to learn how to do), she picked up a hunk of bread somewhere along the way. I have no idea where she picked it up or how long she'd been carrying it, but when we got home, there it was, sticking out the sides of her mouth, while her eyes said, "What? I don't have an enormous hunk of bread in my mouth."
I left the door open while I finished getting ready so she could have some alone time with her special find, but since watching her bury things is one of the highlights of having a weirdo for a dog, I waited until she was around the corner and then I followed her. Sure enough, she was pawing at someone's unkempt flower bed, digging out a spot for a chunk of bread that she will not eat, will not even remember burying, but still cherishes and needs to save it. The cuteness of her at those moments is enough to make me forget just how bad she can smell and enough to remind me just how sad life would be without her quirks warming up each day for me.