Grandma Spread Out Decades of Family Photos. Rusty Had His Own Way of Looking.
Decades of family history are spread across the kitchen table: wedding portraits, school pictures, stiff formal poses, and candid snapshots with scalloped white borders, most of them in black and white. Ruth leans over the pile in her denim shirt, braid hanging down, lifting one photo at a time as if each deserves a moment of its own. Rusty has rested his chin right at the edge of the table, his dark red-gold nose nudging the closest stack. His eyes are on Ruth, not the pictures, but that nose is very busy. Old paper carries a lot of interesting smells, after all, and maybe a few belong to people he never met.
A dog's sense of smell is far more powerful than ours. Dogs have many more scent receptors and a large part of the brain devoted to processing odors, which is why sniffing is one of the main ways they learn about the world. Letting a dog sniff is actually good for them, and many trainers recommend sniff walks or scent games as enrichment, especially for older dogs or those who cannot run as much. At the same time, irreplaceable items like old photographs are worth protecting. Keep them out of reach when you are not supervising, since a curious dog might lick, chew, or carry off something precious without meaning any harm.
Rusty seems to understand the assignment today: look, sniff, but do not touch. Somewhere in that pile is probably a picture of another family dog, and he would surely approve of being part of the story now.
