Dogs and Verbena

 

     Finnegan, my Havanese dog, discovered something very interesting in the backyard.  It had been there a couple of weeks but he hadn’t noticed it before.

He chews a lot on weeds and random bits of grass and blown leaves.  He enjoys trying to eat things he should not, like the solar panels that were removed briefly when the roof was being prepared.

Finnegan has a long proud history of capturing things dropping from above him, like Burt’s Bees lip gloss, which he will diligently try to eat….cap, cover and gloss.

Needless to say, we are always vigilant. 

As he’s gotten older, now all of one year and two months, he knows metal and glass aren’t particularly appetizing.  Thankfully, he no longer steals pens.

However, he adores paper in any shape or form, particularly tissues and paper napkins, especially ones that have just been used.  He likes to shred toilet paper too.  He is our 24 hour clown.

So, typically, as you see, he tends towards eating oddball things. 

Thus, I was surprised to watch him start fussing with the wild purple verbena that reseeds itself each spring in my back yard. 

He sniffed it and licked it.  Then he put one puppy paw down on a soft green branching stem to hold it in place and chewed through it to capture a fresh stalk with new colorful florets.  Looking at me, he turned tail and ran off to his “grass rug” and settled down with his prize.  He played with it and ate one of the little flowers. 

He got distracted with a ball lying next to him and left his new green toy for another time.  I am hoping he doesn’t pull out the rest of the verbena, one trailing vine at a time. 

Since he’s a fussy eater, and likes one thing one day, but not the next, I suspect my verbena will be safe.  With curious, mischievous dogs, one must remain optimistic.