Tennis, anyone?

Back in the day, Cid was on a walk along the splash pad, in Sea Bright, and found a bush along the side of the walkway that had french fries spilled under it.  Of course, Cid being a dog, he gobbled up the fallen fries before you could shake your tail.  On every succeeding walk in that direction, he had to be sure to check under that particular bush, which we called the french fry bush, to see if there were any more fries ripe for the gobbling.  I don't think we ever found another batch, but not because we weren't looking.

A couple of days ago, Bandit discovered the much fabled tennis ball ivy.  A couple of the yards up the block, that are very steep in front, have ivy where ordinarily you might expect grass, because of the steep slope, and the impossibility of finding anyone crazy enough to mow a 45 degree hill every week.  Normally, we've been walking past these yards without taking much notice.  Sunday morning, tho, all of a sudden Bandit stuck his nose right into the ivy, to the point where his whole head was covered by it.  It's English ivy, not the poison type.  A couple of minutes of rustling around, and out he popped, with a fresh from the can tennis ball in his mouth.  First time he's ever tried to carry a tennis ball with us on a walk, so when he finally dropped it, a few houses up, I picked it up and carried it home for him.

We pass tennis balls on our walks pretty regularly, generally slightly used ones, left by dogs or kids or whoever drops that sort of thing.  We've never carried one home before.

So the new tennis ball joined our collection of tennis balls of all vintages, because it's a dog thing.

Next day, same walk in the morning, and there he goes, diving into the ivy again, in almost the same spot.  And guess what?  He came up with another fresh from the can tennis ball.  Which he carried away with him, so when he finally put it down, I picked it up and brought it home, too.

I expect we'll find the third tennis ball on a future walk, because they still come in cans of three, don't they?