I thought I had COVID
last week. My little dog, Ollie, and I sat down like we do most mornings to meditate, pray, and
journal together. Buddy comes, too; he usually sits with us for just a few
minutes before wandering off for some alone time. But Ollie lies right next to
me in the big, comfy chair until meditation time with Oprah ends and he hears me say, “Namaste,” at which time he
will sit up, stretch his little neck, and hop off the chair. Look how cute.
My quiet mornings with my
sweet dogs and a cup of coffee are some of my favorite things in the whole world.
My sister also bought me a Nespresso Aeroccino milk frother for Christmas this
year which turns my Barista Style Oatley into a sweet crown of Heaven atop my
perfect cup of Good Morning Sunshine.
But this day, as
I sat down and took my first sip of coffee, it tasted like water. DO I HAVE
COVID? I whiffed it deeply. Does it smell like coffee? Or have I been smelling
it already so I can’t smell it? I worked myself into a panic fairly quickly. Am
I feverish? Or is that a hot flash? Does my head hurt? Maybe it hurts!
Ohmygosh, it TOTALLY HURTS! How about my throat? *cough* Is that a new or
worsening cough?? Can I breathe?? I CAN’T BREATHE!
I sniffed the coffee
again, but I definitely couldn’t smell it. What else is smellable? I looked at
my sweet Ollie lying next to me getting ready for meditation time and took a deep whiff.
Ollie has a certain smell. He doesn’t smell like a dog. Ollie has kind of a mild sweet and fluffy smell. I
sniffed the top of his head, but still wasn’t certain of my COVID diagnosis, so
I picked up one of his little paws and sniffed. You see, Ollie’s paws smell
like popcorn.
I learned this about a year after Ollie arrived at our house. Chris was sitting with Ollie on the sofa and sniffing his little paws. This was not unusual behavior for Chris. Chris and my little brother smell things, like they pick up things and sniff them and then put them back down. If I hadn’t grown up watching my brother sniff random things, I might think there was something not-quite-right about my second son.
Knickknacks
from other people’s houses, specific rocks (not all rocks, of course!), pieces
of paper. One of these days, I’m going to delve deeper into how these guys deem
an item sniff-worthy. It’s not like they are just picking up things to sniff
all day long. That would be weird.
So Chris and Ollie are having an intimate moment on the couch and it made me laugh. They looked so cute, and it reminded me of the way I used to sit with Chris and smell his fat, little baby feet. Then Chris said, “Ollie’s feet smell like popcorn.”
I considered that Chris
might be trying to trick me, but it turns out to be totally true. Our little
dog has popcorn feet. Know what else? At least a half dozen of my friends
confirmed that THEIR dogs’ paws also smell like popcorn, Doritos, or Fritos.
"My friends always said doggy paws smell like Doritos. haha so weird"
"My son told me this, too."
"I think Fritos lol"
"So the secret ingredient in popcorn or Doritos is....Doggy toe jam?"
"Kirk always says Tani's feet smell like Fritos."
"I was noticing just last night that Chloe smelled like Doritos. No joke."
In our meditation chair, Ollie’s little foot smelled exactly like a movie theater, so I was pretty confident that I didn’t have COVID.
When Albert got home
later that evening, he asked, “Did the coffee taste OK this morning?”
You see, Albert had an
early meeting that morning, so he poured himself a to-go cup of coffee before it
had finished brewing. “It was SO STRONG, so I worried that the coffee might not
have tasted very good for you.”
I hope your dog’s feet
smell like something delicious AND that you don’t have COVID.
Thank you for reading!
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