canine cane caper

Last week I made one of my rare appearances at the local Tuesday farmer's market. I mean to go more often, but things always seem to get in the way, or the day comes and I forget.

It was just before Thanksgiving, and the stalls were piled high with produce. One stall, selling various Asian vegetables, had thick purplish black, bamboo-like stalks of sugar cane for sale. They were beautiful objects, and only a dollar each. I wondered if maybe the dogs would like them for chewing on like bones, only sweeter. Why not?

The woman at the stall bound the stalks together using a plastic bag, twisting it into the semblance of a rope to tie them near each end, and then fashioned a handle with another twisted bag, tying it like a bridge to both end bindings, a very practical, charming and thoroughly Japanese packaging solution.

I got them home, and they looked so beautiful I didn't give them to the dogs right away, but just left them on the counter so I could enjoy seeing them there, and there they sat for ten days.

This afternoon I opened the door, and it looked like someong had chopped down an oak, put the entire tree through a shredder, loaded the chips into a huge garbage bag and onto a helicopter, flown over my house, lifted the roof off and dumped the chips in from a great height.

Every inch of floor, bed, and couch was covered in chips and splinters of sugar cane. There were telltale muddy paw prints on the counter where she had reached her 15-inch self to the grand height of 32-inches to grab the cane by stretching with all her might, and maybe even giving a little hop. And the answer was a resounding yes. YES, dogs do like sugar cane.