One of my neighbors, I’m not sure which one, believes that the tiny birds in our communal backyard will enjoy huge crusts of French bread that would suffocate a goose. We live in an apartment complex and share this backyard with a lot of people we rarely see. And Cricket makes sure to bark at anyone who dares to be outside, so I feel bad complaining about anyone else’s foibles. But the scattering of bread felt like a field of landmines to me. The last time the French bread was thrown out into the backyard was over the winter, when we discovered that my other dog, Butterfly, is diabetic.
The bread in the grass.
Putting white bread in front of Butterfly would be like leaving bowls of whiskey in front of an alcoholic dog.
Butterfly loves the food she’s allowed to eat. She loves her chicken treats and kibble and chew sticks. It’s just that, if I am sitting on the couch eating a piece of pizza, she will stretch until she can reach the pizza and try to chew off the side of the crust. She is very short, but white flour gives her magical powers.
Butterfly is finding bread…
Everywhere!
Cricket was interested in the bread too, but not more than she was interested in the squirrels, and the birds, and the sticks. When I pulled Cricket away from a piece of the bread, she basically shrugged and said, “whatever,” and moved on to try to rip my arm out of the socket as she ran towards a squirrel who was already miles out of her reach.
“Look, Cricket, bread is falling from the sky!”
Of course, my first thought when I saw the bread scattered on the lawn was to do a blog post about it. So Mom brought her camera and I brought the girls and we had to pose Butterfly close enough to the bread to show the temptation, but not so close that she could actually eat the bread. Of course, she gobbled a piece down before I could pull her away.
“Mine!”
I don’t know what to make of my behavior here. I was worried about Butterfly being tempted by the bread and falling into a sugar coma and dying in front of me, and yet, another part of me just kept thinking – blog post!
The bread was gone by the end of that day, and it hasn’t returned. I have no idea who was tossing the bread out there, but it’s possible that they were watching me and Mom and the girls out on the lawn feverishly trying to get pictures, and decided to scoop the bread back up. Or, the maintenance guys saw the bread and grumbled about how they could possibly mow around these stupid obstacles, and picked them all up and threw them in the garbage.
I didn’t even realize how anxious the bread gauntlet had made me feel until it was gone. Not having to grip Butterfly’s leash in a fist made the bread-free walk, even in the heat, almost blissful.
And yet, I almost wish the bread gauntlet, with its connotations of manna from heaven, would return. I don’t want Butterfly to get sick, but the glee on her face when she sees those magical pieces of bread is overwhelming and, selfishly, I want to see that look again. Is there such a thing as low sugar manna from heaven?
“More!”
rachelmankowitz 
Rachel, that’s a title that leaves one no choice but to read this post. Nicely done!
Thank you!!!!!!!!!
For my mastiff Emmy it is the disgusting bones that other dogs in the neighbourhood leave out on our running trail. She knows they will make her feel sick, but she can’t resist the ripe and repulsive smell of a pre-loved bone.
We are very lucky that the local dogs hoard their bones, or else I’d never be able to get my girls back indoors.
I’m sorry but I started laughing from the moment you said, “Blog post!” because I think a lot of us can relate. I sacrificed the comfort of a bunch of ducks at the lake by letting my terrier get somewhat close to them (no ducks, or dog, hurt in the process) just to get a blog post. A sign of the times, I suppose 🙂
Sometimes I think Cricket is coming up with new and interesting character flaws just to keep me writing about her. She checks her stats all the time.
A neighbor in our street throws bread out on the green; but only in the summer when there is so much else for birds to feed upon. In winter she never does! I don’t complain because crows take most of it, and I number a crow among my closest friends. Honey resents it deeply if we throw bread out in our garden. She regards anything edible out there as her personal property and any bird that dares take advantage of her when she is indoors gets the full benefit of her tongue!
Reading your very interesting post I wondered just how a dog regards its leash? On the one hand it symbolizes the walk and all that glorious anticipation, on the other it represents restriction and hindrance. I had a dog once who used to chew up his leads. I think maybe I know why.
When the backyard is bread-free I sometimes let Butterfly run off leash, or with her leash dragging behind her. She’s fine with it, unless it falls over her back, and then all bets are off and she can’t concentrate at all. Somehow her friendly leash has suddenly become a vicious enemy!
There are certain parts of town that I dread taking Mollie down as they are liberally festooned with pavement snacks, particularly on a Saturday and Sunday morning. She treats it as an all you can eat buffet…
Uh oh! We have a bunch of food stores right around the corner here. I’m lucky that Butterfly hates walking in that direction, or else I’m sure she’d find a half eaten candy bar within seconds.
Yes as a vegetarian my worst thing is Mollie scoffing down a day old abandoned kebab. Yuck.
My fear is that one of the girls, most likely Cricket, would try to eat the wooden skewer.
Euwww! I don’t *think* Molls would. But I’m not sure. Cricket is a real character!
I bet all dogs like to walk the way of bread like Hansel&Gretel in that fairy tale, but it’s better to stay away from free food :o) but after all it’s interesting our first thought is: oh great for a blog post…. :o) what have we thought before we had a blog? I can’t remember :o)
I don’t know how I managed before I had a blog. Life has so much more meaning when you can tell stories about it!
Our neighbour used to put chunks of bread on her bird table but when trying to carry them off, the birds dropped them on our side of the fence. Luckily, Maggie never took a liking to it, and as for a bone? She has no idea what to do with one!
No bones? Cricket is on her way over to pick up all of those unwanted bones!
We tried her with one, and she had absolutely no idea!
It is hard not to want to much goodies, I think momwithoutpaws would rather me eat the bread instead of all the poop, either way She would be upset also
I think I’d go with your mom on that one: bread over poop.
You’re a good Mom.
Thank you so much!
We often refer to Buster the Schnauzer as ‘the fart king’ , a nicknamed earned because of what happens if he swallows anything besides his organic, over-priced kibble. That said, I have been known to give him meat scraps and suffer the subsequent stench just to see him shake and shimmy in delight!
Doggy happiness is addictive!
I’m glad I’m not dependent on the generosity of humans. I eat anything, this morning it was some bird droppings that could have stood some garlic and salt but I ate them anyway. It’s my way to help the environment-recycling.
You are such a thoughtful creature, Kyla. Maybe for your birthday your humans could give you your own personal salt shaker, for emergency snacks.
That’s the ticket-I’d carry around garlic salt!
My neighbor used to leave old bread for the squirrels. That was before she noticed that they have gnawed on her tree branches, and now they may loose some limbs!
The squirrels or the trees?!!!
One of my neighbors puts bread out too and while I don’t have the diabetic worry you have, it draws wild critters which ultimately could hurt the pooches from the area. Raccoons, foxes and an occasional coyote could pose omnious consequences if they bit Sam. It’s always important to be vigilent when our fur baby’s health is concerned. It’s easy to think “what a great topic” something would be for the blog. Funny how blogging tends to open our eyes wide to potential posts. 🙂
We have a neighbor who leaves out food for the feral cats in the neighborhood and, shockingly, we have a lot of feral cats around here. But they are entertaining, especially for the dogs. Cricket keeps trying to climb the retaining wall to catch a cat. We might need to do a blog post about that….
so you pose Cricket and Butterfly…strictly for blog purposes?! Oh, Rachel–I laughed so hard at that. Too funny! I love your captions. This was a great post.
Thank you so much! We have cameras stashed around the apartment just in case the girls do something blog-worthy.
We have to keep our away from bread so chunks on the lawn would be awful. Good post i enjoyed reading it.
Cricket has been trying to make do with our neighbor’s vegetable garden. We are going to owe him a lot of tomatoes.
It surprises me that someone would throw food for any animal on property that isn’t theirs. To make an assumption that what they are doing will be appreciated by the community is absurd. If they chose to do it on their own property, that would be something different, but on community property — there is no excuse.
Bell does eat bones. She has several that she gnaws on and it keeps her teeth peatly white. On occasion she will take them in our backyard and leave them there. Several other dogs in our neighborhood are allowed to roam free and use our backyard as their personal toilet. Their owners never pick up after them and have even gone so far as to deny that “their” dog would do that. When their dog took one of Bell’s bones and the neighbor had the nerve to complain, I told them that on my property I can do whatever I want and that they should keep their dog on their property. I don’t drop bones in other peoples yards or even have them in the front yard where other dogs might roam while being walked. In my yard though, it’s a different story.
The point I’m trying to make, is that if the bread dropper feels compelled to leave bread out for the birds, they should do it on their own property where they will not infringe on anyone else.
The poor little birds in our area would need knives and forks to get through that french bread, though. Maybe some plastic utensils could be tossed out there too?
Aawwww how cute; you are only being a normal human being. To see those facial expressions that you know so well can lead us to temptation:)
Little Miss Butterfly is giving me her best “I want bread” face right now.
That last picture is beyond precious!!!!
Thank you!
I feel for Butterfly! It must be like having a box of one’s favourite chocolates within arm’s reach and not allowed to take a bite…
Sweet pictures, anyway 🙂
She DID have that jonesing for chocolate look on her face!
I would have no worries with Chancy and bread he don’t show an interest in it but there are many other things that would pose a problem. Luckily we have a large fenced yard and we do all of our walking, playing and running in the yard. I had never thought of posing him or the cats for blog purposes, good idea I might have to give that a try sometime. Love that last picture, so adorable! Hugs
Cricket would love to have a fenced in yard, she misses running. I just can’t trust her to stay out of the street. She thinks cars will be her new friends.
A diabetic dog and bread is a worry but the main issue is that bread put out for any animal, birds especially, is downright wrong. It does no good for their guts if dry and isn’t an appropriate food type. Giving bread to some birds is fine if it is soaking wet and therefore just about digestible. Hope the idiot has been dissuaded!
So now I know for next time, if I see the bread out there I should run out and douse it with water! I think that would make it less interesting to the dogs, and if the birds decide to try it, they at least won’t die. Thank you!
Bahaha, this is too funny, Rachel!! Look at that face!! More bread, Mommy! More bread! ❤
I get that face constantly around here.
I don’t know about bread but if my neighbors start leaving beer around the lawn areas I am a goner. Seriously, though, food on the ground can be a threat – Max is a real scrounger who can chicken bones in the bushes and fast food leftovers in the curbs. I have to watch him like a hawk.
Cricket once found chicken bones, a bag full, out on one of our walks. It must have fallen out of a garbage can somewhere along the way. She was not happy when I dragged her away from her treasure.
I so enjoy reading your posts! I always find myself thinking … “and then what happened?”
And then there was more barking, more treats, and many, many naps. Thank you!
I feel a sense of closure. 🙂
Not sure how accurate this information is but maybe worth a research:
Nature’s Own Sugar Free
http://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/natures-own/100%25-whole-grain-sugar-free-bread
That’s amazing! Thank you!
When I walk Jack, I have to watch him like a hawk because he will eat anything. If there was a bread trail, I would be hard pressed keeping him away! Your girls have such personalities. 😀
I knew a puppy who ate rocks and sticks (whole!) and had to go to the vet multiple times to have things removed. She was very happy with herself.
lol the poor owner!
Tweeted this lovely post 🙂
Thank you!
For a moment there I thought you had a photo of me on your blog. Then I realised Butterfly and I must be related – we both look soooo cute! Loving woofs from KoKo http://www.kokosdogblog.com
What a beautiful face!!!!!!
Yes we fluffy little dogs are blessed with such cute faces EVERYONE loves us. We get lots of pats. KoKo
Posted to Twitter, now 🙂
Thank you!
hahahaha when in doubt, get out the camera!!! it’s magic 🙂
Those cameras are addictive!
Your dig us adorable. I have two dogs and love them dearly. They are like our kids.
Butterfly is sitting on my lap as I type this. She has no idea that other moms have human children.
if you make bread with French flour and honey, it eradicates both gluten and sugar problems/allergies/intolerance, as French wheat doesn’t seem to affect those who are gluten intolerant, and neither does honey affect those who have a sugar problem, (both animals and humans). Honey is in fact, as you know a great natural healer. I have recommended and implemented these exchanges for years with both animals and humans, resulting in amazing results. Maybe worth a try? X
Butterfly loves you!!!!!!!!
Tweeted it now 🙂
Thank you so much!
I was a little surprised to hear about the chunks of bread. I would imagine anyone attempting to feed birds would ask about putting up a communal bird table with feeders etc. Throwing bread on the ground is a bit idiotic.
They were great pictures of Butterfly and Cricket. They are always smiling out from your pages whenever I visit your site.
We have another neighbor who put up a sweet little birdhouse, and visits the birds she feeds there. It takes all kinds. I’m just happy to see my girls smiling and well and NOT eating chunks of french bread from the lawn. Now chicken treats sprouting from the ground, that would be a whole other thing.
God bless you monitoring the diabetes like that: my friend Peg also has to do it and you all are to be commended. I am **knocking wood** hoping we don’t have to cross this path.
It has become this ridiculously happy time of day for us around here, so I don’t know how bad we feel about it anymore. Both girls are now smiling and twirling every time they see signs of blood tests and insulin shots coming along. Who knew?
Nice post, bread and pizza…. my favorite subjects!!! Your dogs look nice too, but I am afraid they are not fast enough for me to enjoy a nice running game? Maybe they would if I would run in front of them with a good slice of pizza between my teeth? That would make nice pictures, too… I’ll suggest this to M. Greetings!
When my black lab niece, Lilah, came over, all she had to do was pick up Butterfly’s leash in her mouth and she’d found herself a running partner. No pizza required!
That picture on the bottom is so cute and happy! 🙂
Little miss Butterfly has happy coming out of her ears!
Tweeted this 🙂
Thank you!
Butterfly is pretty Adorable!
Thank you!
They are both really Adorable! 😉
I like to spread the word about your lovely posts, and I’ve just tweeted this one and another 🙂
Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!