It came about because, in her impressionable youth, she encountered a mystery infestation of newly-hatched blowflies in our house and thought it great fun to chase them and eat them.
Disgusting, I know. But dogs don't seem to understand the concept of disgust. (And, from reading the article I've just linked to, no-one completely understands the function of disgust in human psychology.)
Anyway, back to blowflies. (I hope your sense of disgust hasn't kicked in so strongly that you've already clicked away from this post.)
One of Penny's humans reported that she was 'licking the front window'. That seemed so strange that I jumped up from the computer, where I was reporting on our walk to Fairfield Boathouse this morning, and went to check it out.
Frenzied buzzing explained it all. A fly was caught in a spider web at the side of the window where Penny keeps an eye on the street.
'Leave it! I snapped. Too late. She'd pinched the spider's lunch. And the little spider, about the size of a fly itself, was coming out to see what the problem was.
You can't live in Australia without co-existing amicably with spiders, but the thought of the spider biting Penny on the mouth or nose had me worried. So Penny had to go into prison behind a baby gate while I chased the spider up and down the narrow rim of the window with a folded-up Woolworths receipt.
Success! The spider is out in a nice little pile of empty plant pots, and Penny is back at the window.
I just hope the fly went down without causing any stomach problems!
10 comments:
My dogs trying to eat earthworms, for me it was quite disgusting.
I admit I had a bit of an "ew" moment around the word "blowflies." But I'm glad you rehomed the spider. That always seems like good karma to do.
Slavanka, I think earthworms would be very full of good protein, lol.
Curator, the pity of it is that if I'd left the spider in the house, it would have cleaned up more ewwy blowflies for us.
Sure have missed seeing Penny's sweet face. Glad to know she's getting so much better now.
Apparently there's an emerging trend in eating creepy crawlies and looks like Penny has picked up entomophagy pretty well LOL! Bet she'll shine in Fear Factor LOL!
Serendipity ... Fear Factor - I hadn't heard of it, so I Googled it. What an idea for a show! Yep, Penny would be a star.
A couple of my digs eat dirt. They scratch a little patch in the yard till the dirt is loose and eat it. In the house they stick their heads in one of my potted plants and lick up the soil. I try to stop them, but they get by me and enjoy their disgusting little snack.
Hee! Hee! Penny - my human WAS disgusted when she read the word "blowfies" but I totally understand coz I like to try and catch flies too when they're buzzing around my head. I also try to catch bees and my human is always shrieking at me when I do that - I don't know why - she says that I might get an ouchie from them but so far, whenever I've swallowed them, they've just buzzed nicely in my throat! :-)
Slobbers,
Honey the Great Dane
Sue, I wonder if they are getting some minerals by taking that little snack of dirt.
Honey, Penny also gets told off when she snaps at flying things outside, because I worry that she might eat a European wasp. We did have a problem with a local beehive population deciding our pond was the best place for the thousands of inhabitants to drink. Penny would sit there trying to catch them. I found it very stressful. But the drought sorted out that problem, because we had to fill in the dry pond. (Of course, the recent never-ending rain means maybe we should have waited before filling it in, but it's too late now.)
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