funny how

walnut hound

walnut hound
Written by Cathoel Jorss,

We are travelling with a medium-sized hound named Felix and tonight I learned something uncanny about him. There is a bowl of walnuts on the low coffee table by the horde of tealight candles, santa-shaped geegaws, and slinky Christmas lights. The adult son of the house picked up a walnut. “Now watch,” he instructed, and gave it to the dog. Felix stretched himself under grandma’s chair and propped his two paws out in front of him. Delicately he turned his head first left then right, cracking the walnut shell from either end with his long white teeth. The turns of his head on the floor looked so adoring, he held the nut between his two hairy paws. Having dispersed the shell he spent a few juicy-sounding minutes extracting for himself the slivers of meat and scarfing them down ecstatically. I’ve never seen a dog behave like that. When I cracked a walnut for myself – with a nutcracker – he came and sat beside me and gazed with reproachful intensity at every movement. They told me how Felix climbs on the couch and puts one paw up on the coffee table so he can reach the bowl.

The other discovery I made this evening is that if you crack a walnut open cleanly enough, the halved nut with its blade of faintly gleaming wood still attached down the centre can be made to flutter through the air and resembles a tiny butterfly.

10 comments on “walnut hound

  1. Eliane says:

    aw, Felix, love him. And… “-with a nutcracker-” lol

  2. Cathoel Jorss says:

    I’ve insufficient toothiness.

  3. Cathoel Jorss says:

    Dear walnut hound, the modesty and sobriety of this observation make it adorable. We still have some walnuts here if you would like them.

  4. Cathoel Jorss says:

    Not many however as I have been scarfing them before (the very late) dinners and Felix… may come in for his share. It’s the liquid brown eyes.

  5. Cathoel Jorss says:

    Actually I’m kind of harsh with him. Because a spoilt dog is an unpleasant companion, even to himself. But he is just so courteous about the walnuts. He could be feasting on them all night long, locked into the living room, but… refrains.

  6. Alison Lambert says:

    I will not tell my dog about this…

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