Where is my shoe ???

This is one of the pear trees, trained horizontally, and planted against the garage. So amazing to follow how quickly the blossoms turn into fruit. It is not precisely a herb or vegetable garden where the three Doyenne de Comice and Conférence trees are planted, but there is a bit of everything in that corner. This year for instance artichokes at the background are an experiment. Not every day, but often I step in between the plants to see how the seeds are doing. What was this strange surface at the bottom of the pear tree?

It appeared to be my shoe. The dog had pinched it the day before from the garden settee. Look how he buried this: even a little twig of the just cut yew trees placed on it! First he digs a hole with his front paws, then he hides his trophy and covers it all by sand with his nose.
When putting on my Wellingtons at the kitchen door I had left the shoes on top of the settee, never thinking of the dog. He accompanies me all the time, is always close, sniffing the air with his long nose, listening to things that I cannot even hear and from time to time telling me how he is enjoying himself by giving me a kiss on the nose and asking for a hug. At a certain stage he was away and I missed him, but he cannot break out of the garden so sooner or later he returns and no need to worry..

When my back was aching, my duties for that day in the garden done, it was time to stop, take off the Wellingtons and to put back on my normal shoes. But where was one of my shoes ??? I would have loved to see how triumphant he had carried it away sneakily, with composed and careful steps, searching for an appropriate place to hide it. He has done this before, the most gorgeous sea green summer shoe was found back all discoloured of the mud and the rain a few days later. Once a garden glove was sticking out of the soil as a hand .... So far I had not missed it and seeing this really startled me

!

He is clever. He knows all his toys by name, so I wondered if he could find me the shoe. I told him to go and find it. Off we went, he took me through the whole garden, like a guide in the jungle almost - just adorable. But no shoe! By now I know his hiding places, but no luck this time. He has learnt me a lesson: to be careful the next time where I put my things. 

How I love my dog, shoe or no shoe!