Snakeoil
Well-Known Member
My Mom had a toy poodle that loved beer. It all started when some relatives came down from Canada to visit and they always brought Canadian beer. I was sitting in the livingroom with the dog on my lap and a glass of beer in my hand. I was not paying attention as everyone was catching up. Then I felt my glass getting pushed down. I look and that dog has his entire head in the glass, trying to get the last drop in the bottom. He'd managed to drink just about the entire glass of beer without me noticing. I put him down on the floor and it was not long before he could not walk, bumped into stuff and finally laid down and slept for the rest of that day/night. That is what began his love of beer. No other dog we ever had liked any kind of alcoholic drink. They would curl their lip up when you put it near their face (smart dogs).
So, I'm not sure how it started, but we would give the dog a little beer if we had one. You could not pour it in your hand and so we tried letting him lick it from the neck of the bottle. At the time, Genessee made these bottles that looke like little wooden kegs with short necks and that was my parents beer of choice. One day we put the bottle on the floor and the dog (smarter than most of my friends) put his paw around the neck and pushed down so the bottom would tip up. He would then drain the small amount of beer left in the bottom and never spill a drop. When he was done, he would push the bottle around the floor with his nose and bark at it for a bit. Then, he'd put that small lower jaw into the neck, pick up the bottle and bring it over to you so you could put more in it. This became a normal routine in our house.
One day, I stop at my folk's place and when I walk in the front door there are two empty Genny bottles on the floor. Obviously, these are the dog's bottles. My Mom had an alterations business out of their basement and customers came to the front door regularly. When I saw those two empty bottles on the floor, I called for my Mom and pointed to them and said, "You can't do this and have customers come here. They are going to think you or someone else in the house is a drunk and leaves their empties on the floor.". It had never occurred to my Mom. Her face got all red and she realized some customers had probably seen the empties on the floor. That was the last time the dog's bottles were left on the floor of the house. I often wonder how many customers saw this and wondered about what truly went on in that house.
