Herman trying to eat a drawing

This video requires some context, so here comes one of those anecdotes I mentioned. :-)

I have a lap desk ... a kind of laminated board with a cushion on it, you put it in your lap and then you can use it to write on, eat your dinner on it, etc. :-) This cushion is stuffed with little styrofoam balls like in a bean bag. The desk has, well, not to put too fine a point on it, sprung a leak. And those little styrofoam things got just about everywhere. I haven't used the thing for months but still I keep finding them here and there. And Herman has gotten soo good at finding them. ;-) He likes to eat them ... obviously they aren't food, I don't know what he thinks they are. They certainly don't smell like food. But they are something to eat and he will eat anything that he can get in his mouth and swallow. :-) I've found glass beads, Czech beads, on the bottom of the tank sometimes. (I make jewelry and sometimes I drop beads to the floor that I can't find again ... ;-) The styrofoam balls aren't harmful to him, I don't think ... they just pass straight through his system, I find them floating on the surface of the water in the tank. Of course I take them away from him whenever I see him picking one up and trying to swallow it. But sometimes he's a little too quick for me. ;-)

This habit of his has produced the result that he is now always abnormally interested in any little white blob that he sees. A couple of ceilings in my apartment were painted recently ... unfortunately there was a bit of splatter and in the hall there are some small white stains on the floor. Herman's tried to eat these several times. And when we were outside yesterday I had a book with me that has a cover design incorporating some white dots. I think they're spots in a horse's coat in the picture. Suddenly coming upon these must have seemed like a potential treat to Herman. I managed to record a part of his effort to snap up these fascinating little white things. :-D


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us42-6ZkTPs
Voice in background: Me saying Herman is very, very stupid. Yes. You are awfully stupid. You can’t eat something that’s printed on a book, you know. Hm? It can’t be done. It can’t be done.