Furry little fruit theif

It snowed Tuesday afternoon/evening, which is apropos of nothing. The road remained in fairly good shape, so although it made for a long drive home at least it wasn't white knuckle driving.
That evening I was sitting on the couch knitting with Baru in my lap and Samson playing on the floor beside us, as usual. And I could smell an orange.
I sat there knitting and thinking how nice the orange smelled when I finally thought, "Wait a minute. I can SMELL an orange." I looked down and, sure enough, that wasn't a ball Samson had.
So I yelled up to Hubby, "Did you give Samson this orange?" (only it sounded like ORE-ng, because it is one of the few words that brings out my South Jersey accent, consistently. I really say orange weird.)
And Hubby said, "No. He had it when I got home."
Which means the furry little thief swiped it off the counter.

samson smiling
Originally uploaded by annmcclure2000

I didn't bother to take it. It's not like we were going to eat it at that point. And there was not point scolding, he already had the thing.
He like oranges. Actually, he likes any round food that he can play with. One day I dropped a bag of oranges and there was a mad scramble to pick them up. Samson snagged one and was rather happy. He will treat the orange as a ball for a few hours, playing with it, then he will lay down, tear a hole in the skin and eat the flesh.
He also likes tomatoes, especially fresh from the vine. The first year in the house I planted tomatoes in the corner of the yard between the house and the steps to the driveway. First he took the ones that fell to the ground. Then he started on the ripe ones on the plants. When those were exhausted he started on the green ones, which worried me they would get bad bellies and indeed Baru hurled at least once.
The second year I planted on the far side of the picket fence where the puppies aren't allowed. this worked rather well, but the soil was very rocky and hard to work.
Last summer I planted at the end of the back deck, where the grass doesn't grow because of water run of and a big tree that shades the area. I didn't think it was the best spot, and it wasn't. The vines weren't very productive. Samson when after them anyway. When I told him not to he retaliated by peeing on them. That was the end of that, I'm not eating tomatoes watered with puppy urine.
I don't think I'll do a garden next year.
Anyway, back to Tuesday night and the orange. A few minutes after discovering the theft, I got up and they wanted to go outside. Samson wanted to take his orange. He's not supposed to take toys outside, but I figured it's not a real toy so what the heck. A few minutes later I look out the window and Baru is eating the orange wholesale, skin and all, crunch crunch. Samson was standing there looking forlorn, which made me feel sorry for him. So I went and got him the last apple, which was probably on the way out anyway.
Apples apparently don't have the play appeal that oranges do because he just laid down in the snow and ate it. Baru, meanwhile, was busy licking the snow to get any juice that dripped.
I suppose this is what I get for having them on a healthy, all natural diet. At least they eat their fruit and vegetables.