A blog post by Clutch, the scent-mapping Yorkie
I’m a Yorkie, which means I have an amazing nose. I can smell every detail for miles around. Thanks to my nose, I have the whole yard mapped out. I can tell if something is out of place or if some new creature has approached.
However, in summer, things get wonky sometimes. Smells get scrambled. I have to do my scent mapping work all over again.
Why does this happen? I’ll tell you why. The cause of all this chaos is summer rain, summer blowing, and summer mowing. Basically, summertime is a lot of work for a scent-mapping, super-nosed Yorkie.
Rain Puddles Bring New Smells
Just when I’ve got every summer scent catalogued, along comes a rainstorm. Everything changes. The smells get scrambled again.
The aroma of wet leaves and mud is everywhere. It’s not a bad smell. It makes me think of food growing, and I love food. But it’s heavy and covers up the other scents I’ve so carefully identified.
Then, there’s the smell of creatures that come out in the rain. Earthworms and frogs. It’s an invasion. My walk turns into a rainforest trek!
The earthworms usually wriggle back into the mud. But those frogs like to jump in the rain puddles. One large frog likes to sit in front of our door. He sits there for hours, just staring out. Maybe he’s the lifeguard for the puddle splashers.
I love to lick frogs. I’m not allowed to lick them because they’re toxic. That doesn’t stop me from trying. Miss Janet usually lifts me over the frog by the door. She doesn’t understand that I lick frogs as part of my scent mapmaking.
Mushy Rooms Follow the Rain
Everytime it rains, another scent pops up. Mushrooms. I find them fascinating—so many shapes, sizes, and colors. Sometimes, a whole colony will spring up, like an apartment complex for bugs. That’s why I call them mushy rooms.
They pop up everywhere after a rainstorm. They hang out for a while, and then they disappear. Where do they go?
I’m especially forbidden from eating a mushroom because some are highly toxic for dogs. Miss Janet is very strict about keeping me away from them. I think her eyes are just as keen as my nose. She says her sharp eyes are meant to keep me out of trouble.
One time, I snuck behind a tree and grabbed a mushroom. Pulled the whole thing right out of the ground. It was all slimy, and I couldn’t get a good grip with my teeth, so I dropped it. Miss Janet grabbed it and tossed it away. She put me in time out for that infraction. She’s intensified her guard duty since then.
Dirt Blows over My Scent Map
Summer rainstorms often bring lots of wind. Tree branches shake, leaves and seed pods fall, dirt flies everywhere, and my carefully plotted scent map becomes a mess.
After a storm, I go out for my walk and feel like I’m on a different planet. What used to be up is down, what’s supposed to be over there is here. It’s madness.
How am I supposed to read my scent map and find out what creatures have walked through? A rodent that lives 10 miles away smells like he lives below my front porch now. All because his scent has blown and landed here.
Even worse, the rodent that keeps climbing under the hood of Miss Janet’s car, I can’t smell him anymore. But I know he’s still here. His scent may have blown away, but I cannot and will not be fooled. Even without my scent map, I will stay on guard.
As if all that chaos is not enough, when the ground dries, the humans walk around with a blower and send the debris flying into a big pile. Now I really can’t tell what’s what. I’ll have to catalogue my scent map all over again. Hours of extra work, and in the meanwhile, creatures run rampant all over my yard. We Yorkies have a tough job all summer long.
Wild Onion Potpourri
Then comes the mowing. The yard, meadow, fields, all of it cropped short by that noisy monster with the human riding on its back. When the mowing is done, the grass looks as short as my hair does after a visit to the groomer. Of course, I’m much more handsome.
That’s when the new scents emerge: cut grass, herbs, wildflowers, and wild onions. I feel like I’m walking through a salad bowl, except I really don’t want to eat any of it. By the time I get back inside, my own coat smells like wild onion. It’ll be days before I can get my scent map figured out again. I can’t even recognize my own scent.
The one nice thing about fresh-cut grass is all the insects are on the move. I enjoy stalking and pouncing on bugs after the lawn is mowed. I rarely catch them, but the chase keeps me entertained, and it’s good physical and mental exercise.
So, that is the story of how summer smells get scrambled. That’s why I have to take so many naps during the summer because I am so busy remapping all the smells. With my scent map reassembled, I can make sure everything stays in its place, and I can tell what creatures are moving through my yard.
A Yorkie’s summer work is never done. It’s a continuous series of sniffing, mapping, remapping, and guarding in between pockets of naps. In case you feel sorry for me and want to help, thank you, but without my highly refined nose, you’d be lost. I am, however, open to a juicy blueberry treat at your convenience.
Keep sniffing, all summer long,
Clutch
The Inquisitive Yorkie 