Guard Dog Sam

As my wife came out of the grocery store, she was amazed to see an older man standing by her mini-van.

What was amazing about it was that our Border Collie, Sam, who would normally never let anyone outside the family get that close without yelling, was calmly sitting on the seat looking at the man.

As she approached, she finally saw more clearly what was going on. Sam wasn't looking at the man, but rather what was in the man's hand, hanging casually by his side.

When she arrived at the van, the man spoke, "Nice dog." My wife agreed, but told the man that Sam wouldn't normally allow him to get this close to the van.

The man held up the bag that he was holding and asked if he could give the dog one. What he was holding was a small, brown bag from Tim Horton's. This is what Sam had been looking at, and recognized it for what it was: a repository for those tasty morsels of fried dough known as Timbits. My wife said that he could have one and proceeded to unlock the van.

The man reached into the bag and proffered the tasty treat to Sam, who gently took it. Once he swallowed it, he fixed his gaze on that little brown bag once more. The man asked if he could have another and my wife gave her permission. The man handed the Timbit to the dog and while it was being chewed and swallowed, he crumpled up the empty bag.

This action made it obvious that the man had nothing more to offer that Sam would be interested in and so, being back on duty guarding his mistress and her chariot, Sam looked the man in the eye, curled his lip and began to snarl and growl.

The man thought that this was hilarious. He told my wife what a great guard dog she had and went away with a smile on his face.

Several days later, as my wife drove into the same parking lot, a car pulled into the space beside her. The same man got out waving a small brown bag. He came around to the passenger door and helped an elderly lady, who he introduced as his mother, from the car.

He handed the lady the bag and they went through the same routine as described above, only the mother handed out the Timbits this time. When the last Timbit was eaten and the bag crumpled, Sam went into his "guard dog" routine. They both laughed heartily, thanked my wife and drove away.

Were these people driving around town for days, with a bag of Timbits in the car, hoping to spot my wife and Sam?