New tricks - old dogs

I have ever made it a habit not to teach any of my dogs tricks - there is something undignified about a dog doing tricks don't you think -  and thus would not be in position to judge the veracity of the old adage referred to by the title of this piece. As an old dog myself I have certainly not been taught any new tricks for a very long while and although I have learnt some new tricks since we moved here to Crete that is not the same thing at all.

Anyway, onto the meat of this post: Molly and Bridey will be 4 this summer and are thus at least approaching some canine middle age. Notwithstanding this Molly has recently taught herself a new "trick". She has obviously been observing our habits closely and has now found one that appeals to her. No, don't fret, she hasn't taken up smoking! Earlier this winter we experienced a blockage of the kitchen sink that I finally traced back to a build-up of coffe grounds in the waste trap. Since then we have taken to tipping the used grounds into a champagne bucket that we keep under the sink. We empty the contents from the bucket every few days around the roots of trees in and around the kitchen garden. Molly has taken, we discovered a few weeks ago, to checking the contents whenever she comes into the house and if there is enough then later on, when she has finished her dinner, she will wander over to the bucket and take a post prandial cup of coffee.

There's nowt so queer as dogs!