Ruby’s story……………..

Friends, I’m sure that by now you know that I’ve got a very good appetite and a healthy relationship with food (although mum doesn’t always think that it’s that healthy).

I like all food. There pretty much isn’t anything that I won’t eat, except worming tablets, see an earlier blog. But no, if it’s there for the eating it’s fair game to me. My own food of course gets wolfed down twice a day, at breakfast and dinnertime, but then in between there is a whole host of things that I like to snack on during the day. You name it and I’ll eat it and I’m always partial to trying the local cuisine whenever we go anywhere.

I’ve eaten Lakeland sheep poo in the Lake District. I’ve eaten a whole variety of fish and sea food on the Yorkshire coast. Seaweed in Scotland, and even a Crab in Scarborough.

But nothing prepared me for the delicacy that I tried in Pembrokeshire. Oh no, this was a whole different experience. It was a couple of years ago when they took me on holiday down there. It was the first day and I was having a run on the beach. I was heading for a dip in the sea, head down I was running full pelt. When a strange smell hit my nose. I hadn’t smelt this smell before, not in the fields at home. No this was a whole new smell and it smelt delicious. But where was it coming from. I couldn’t see anything laid out in front of me, where it usually was. There was nothing there. But hang on what’s that over there shining on the beach. It looked just like a pool of water, but that was where this delicious aroma was coming from, so I headed towards it.

When I got there I knew for sure that that was where the smell was coming from. But this was strange, I’d never seen anything like this before. I need to get to acquainted with this first. I know, I’ll have a roll, that always works. I just need to make sure that it was fit for eating, and boy was it good rolling material. So this must mean it’s good eating material too, and it was. It was, a little bit chewy at first, more chewy than the things I usually find in the fields. In fact it was a bit tough to get through but I had a good old go. That was until dad came running up and grabbed me before I saw him. It was totally my fault that I got caught. I was engrossed in this whole new culinary experience. If I’d have seen him coming, I could have got away. But I took my eye off the ball for a minute and now I was being dragged away.

But never mind friends I did try this lovely new food on a few more occasions on that holiday. I came across loads more of the little puddles on the beach that were just as tasty as the first one, albeit a little bit chewy……

Mum’s story……………….

As you are probably aware by now, Ruby is a typical Labrador and will pretty much eat anything and everything. I’d like to say that she has a healthy appetite, unfortunately it’s anything but healthy. The stuff that goes in her mouth just doesn’t bear thinking about, everything is fair game to her.

To be honest though, she’s nothing if not adventurous and wherever we go, she is always first to try the local cuisine.

There have been many times that we have chased her round a field in the Lake District trying to get her to stop eating sheep poop.

We’ve battled to stop her eating an array of fish and other washed up sea creatures on most beaches around the Yorkshire Coast. We’ve had to stop the car and clear out the back seat on the way home from Scarborough when she threw up after eating a whole crab. We’ve even spent a day having to pull seaweed out of her backside after she gauged herself on it the day before on a beach in Scotland. So you can pretty much say that wherever and whatever it is, if it’s there she’ll eat it.

I do honestly think, though that the worst of the worst, worse than any of the carcasses that she’s eaten in fields. Worse than any variety of poo that she eaten, even worse than the dead squirrel……. the worst was what she found in Pembrokeshire.

It was the first day of our holiday and we’d taken her for a run on the beach. The beach was pretty empty and after the quick 10 second risk assessment that I always carry out whenever we go anywhere new. It did look like there was nothing undesirable to catch her attention. Oh, how wrong where we.

She was just setting off running full pelt to the sea. When up went her nose and we knew straightaway that she’d got a smell of something. But what was it, there was nothing around, what could she smell. The only thing that we could see, looked just like shiny puddles of water on the beach.

But soon, she was rolling in this “water” and then started to eat it……. what on earth……… oh no Jelly Fish………..

We spent the rest of the week on Jelly Fish watch, usually failing spectacularly , she must have eaten another four or five that week………. but then I suppose it’s something else ticked off the list of food that only a Labrador would eat………

NB. we did check with the life guards on the beach that the Jelly Fish were harmless ……….. and no ill effects were suffered…….

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