We all know what power our senses bring us. I'm focusing right now on our sense of smell and taste and all the splendor and, yes, the disgust they can wring out of us. From the beauty of flowers or a freshly baked pizza on the one hand, to a garbage bin or recently invaded bathroom on the other hand, our senses make us react across a broad range of emotions. And, naturally, we are not alone in this. Animals share these experiences as well.
I defer now to the world of dogs. The experts tell us that a dog's sense of smell can be as much as 100,000 times more acute than us deficient humans!! Every dog owner bears witness to this every day. When we take our dogs on walks, most of these creatures like to stop what seems like every seven seconds to smell something whether it's a "pee mail" left by one of their neighboring four legged pals or anything else that is not remotely identifiable by us humans. In my case, our totally endearing puppy, Cosmo, would, if she could, extend every twenty minute walk to four hours so she could stop and sniff every little microscopic item that lies on the ground or maybe did in recent weeks. And, I confess this drives me nuts. Just pee and poop, Cosmo, and let's get on with the rest of the day! Having said this, I do try to be tolerant and permit more of what I perceive as a trivial pursuit than I would like, although not as much as Lady Cosmo would like. As I often say, it's not like dogs watch movies or TV or read books or do puzzles. Their joy is in pursuing whatever smells out there.
In our daily routine, Cosmo and I head to the beach -- this time of year twice daily -- where Cosmo gets to run free and engage in her beloved pursuit of a tennis ball which I happily throw to her with my chuckit. When we arrive at the beach, she anxiously awaits my releasing her and with an explosion of happiness chases the ball and returns it jumping all the while before taking off again. Ahh, but then my less than best friend, Cosmo's sense of smell, kicks in. As the experts have explained to us, the dogs smell everything. In their world nothing is left unsniffed. In our case at the beach, Cosmo will within minutes of our arrival take off in random directions in pursuit of I don't know what. Largely, it's all the crap that people leave on the beach like doritos or apple cores or orange peels or an assortment of nuts. I often refer to these leftbehinds as the salad bar or the buffet line that so attracts dogs the way these things attract humans in our experience. But, let's not stop there. Cosmo has also developed a passion for jellyfish, bird feathers and certain shells. Not long ago I got home and told Lily that Cosmo had eaten a dollar and a half. She tilted her head and said, "what do you mean?" I replied that Cosmo had eaten one and a half sand dollars.
But then our lives took a turn. I noticed that when our path would cross with friends Sue and Tom and their dog, India, Cosmo would get deliriously distracted by a ball they were using -- an orange squeaky thing. Cosmo would drop everything and have a laser like focus on this ball. She once ran about a half mile up the beach when she saw them and I realized it was solely because of her complete obsession with the ball India liked to retrieve. What I learned is that this ball was bacon scented! Perfect! It didn't take me more than nine seconds after I got home to put in an order for these treasures.
And, this morning the new ball made its debut. I am now tempted to buy stock in the company that makes these things. Even on our walk to the beach, Cosmo was jumping with joy and staring constantly at me wanting desperately to get her mouth around the little tasty jewel sitting in the chuckit. When we got to the beach, she went nuts. For the next hour as we walked up the beach and back, she wanted nothing to do with anything on the beach but have that squeaky bacon-filled dream in her mouth. She never delayed in bringing every throw back to me so she could experience this mini hunting expedition as many times as possible. Well, okay, there was this one moment where she ferreted out a half eaten pizza slice that someone left behind, but that proved to be a very temporary distraction.
So, I believe I have now adapted a dog's powerful sense of smell and taste to an exercise that keeps both Cosmo and me happy. Long live bacon!
