We were sitting down for dinner last night at the dining room table, which is a normal event in many households. We tell each other jokes as we eat our dinner and it’s a good time to catch up on the busy lives of us and the kids. We all have something to say and it’s a loud time as everybody wants to speak at once.

The only one who doesn’t say anything is Storm. He patiently sits next to the table and says nothing. In the past I thought he said nothing because he had nothing important to say but if you have a good look at him you’d notice something different.

He’s planning something, his eyes dart around the people sitting at the table as he assesses each of us as he asked himself a simple question – “Which of these people are going to drop some of their food on the floor accidentally?” Storm has done a risk assessment and has come to the conclusion that if this tragic event occurred he could be in the ideal location to clean it up and dispose of the food in the only way a dog knows how to.

He would be doing his masters a great service, this makes perfect sense to Storm as he always thinks he’s making the world a better place by his actions. Our cats say otherwise but that’s another story.

He sits there every night and just waits, looking up at us with his sorrowful eyes. So far it hasn’t worked and he walks away disappointed that his attempt at emotional manipulation has failed. He never walks away hungry however because we’ve already fed him his dinner, but he doesn’t understand and firmly believes we’ve somehow cheated him out of food.

There is always tomorrow, he’ll be there again waiting by the table for the right moment. This time it will work, he guarantees it.