Mighty Persimmon Hunter

The last persimmon of the season

I can't remember if I've mentioned this here before, but my dogs love persimmons. I didn't even know my neighbors had a persimmon tree until a couple of months ago when I looked up and there it was, a gigantic tree that actually crossed over the fence into my back yard, with a bazillion persimmons on it. I'm guessing the tree was not planted in the last year, so you are right to wonder how I missed a giant tree just fifteen feet from my house for eighteen years, but there you have it. I'm just an amazingly observant person. (Also, it might have been blocked by the oleander bush that I had severely trimmed last year. So I only really missed seeing it for a year. That's better, right?)

Anyhow, my neighbor brought over a bag and I tried a couple of slices on the dogs and they both loved it. There aren't many things they both like. The little dog tends to like vegetables (carrot, zucchini, broccoli, red pepper) and the big dog is a fan of fruit -- he still rushes outside every morning to see if any figs have fallen overnight, and fig season ended months ago.

Caught the two millisecond down-stay!

I mentioned to my neighbor that if the dogs could climb trees, my neighbors wouldn't have to worry about giving away the rest of their persimmons, so she asked if she should just chuck any of the damaged ones over the fence. Not really thinking about it, I said "sure, of course!"

It took about a day for the big dog to realize there were persimmons hiding in the ivy. Now he begs to go outside so he can go look. He spent hours out there in the rain today. I'm not sure how many he found today, but he definitely ate a few yesterday, which became clear when his high fiber voluminous poop came out bright orange on our walk. That freaked me out a little until I realized what was going on.

The photo shoot nearly came to a disastrous end (for the persimmon) at this point.

Anyhow, I'm calling it "enrichment". Maybe I should plant a tree of my own.