Yesterday we ran out of dog food. My stop-gap measure during such an emergency is to feed the dogs cooked brown rice. This fills them up enough that they don’t create drool puddles on the floor while watching us eat. It also alleviates the need to regularly count the limbs and digits of all humanoids residing in this house.

Behold, the dogs:

Rice, when cooked, is hot. Three bowls of rice were served up and left to cool on the counter. When they’d cooled past the danger point, said bowls were put on the ground.

The way in which each dog chose to deal with the still-too-hot rice is actually pretty indicative of their personalities and intelligence levels.

Dog #1, Fergusson:

Ferg’s approach is usually blunt and head on, but not always brain-ful. When it comes to food, she’s willing to do whatever it takes and will often work too hard for the effect required.

Case in point; the rice. Ferg picked up her bowl in her teeth (by the rim) and ran around the living room in circles, carrying the bowl, to cool the rice down.

Dog #2, Wikket:

Wikket is generally efficient, but playful, in a business-like sort of way. She likes things best when they move through the air.

Her solution? She carefully picked up clumps of rice in her teeth and tossed them into the air to cool them off, before catching and eating them, thereby combining play with bodily necessity.

Dog #3, Moss:

Moss surprised me, actually, by taking the most practical and straightforward approach of the lot of them. He simply tipped the bowl with his nose, whacked it with his paw to disperse the rice across the room, and ate the food off the floor.

We haven’t laughed so much at dog antics in quite a while!