Does Your Dog Eat Vegetables?

My sister rescued this dog from the streets of Los Angeles about a month ago.  She took him to a shelter first, where she learned that due to over-capacity issues, the shelter would most likely have to euthanize any new dogs that didn't get adopted out within a few days.  Well, that was completely unacceptable to her, so she did everything she could to try to find the dog's owner.  She put up flyers.  She put up ads.  She went door to door in her neighborhood.  When none of that worked, she then tried to find a new adoptive family for this dog.  When that also didn't work, she went back to the shelter and adopted the dog herself, intending to extend his life while she kept looking for a suitable new family for the dog.  But then she got attached to the dog.  So she named him Wilson (like the "lost" volleyball from the movie Cast Away), and she's now keeping him for herself.

Wilson is a mutt, but apparently he looks most like a Shiba Inu. Yeah, he's a cutie, and he has an adorable pink spot right above his nose.

I met Wilson for the first time while I was back in California about two weeks ago.  Compared to all the other dogs I've known well in my life, Wilson is very well behaved, quick to learn commands, and rather easy-going.  For example, my sister trained him to sit outside her kitchen while she's in there, so that he wouldn't get in the way and beg for food.  And when she brought him over to our mom's house, she taught him to do the same thing outside my mom's kitchen, which he learned to do in just one day.  If Wilson ever met Reese (one of our dogs in Indiana), Reese would ask, "but how would you ever eat anything that fell on the floor during chopping or cooking, if you're just sitting outside the kitchen?"

Speaking of eating, this dog eats VEGETABLES!

After I pulled some girthy carrots from my mom's garden, I brought one in the room to show my sister.  Wilson seemed a bit curious about the carrot, so I tore up some green carrot top and gave it to him, fully expecting him to sniff and turn his nose at it.  But to my surprise, he looked, he sniffed, he touched, and then he ate it!

He looks like he's sleeping in this picture, but he's not.  His eyes are closed because either he was straining himself to tear a bite-size piece from the carrot top, or the camera flash scared him. 

I took him with me to the backyard to harvest more vegetables, and he ate everything I gave him.  He ate some sugar snap peas, zucchini, lettuce and carrots.  His only issue was that he wanted me to cut/slice them into bite sized pieces, like he didn't want to go through the trouble of breaking down the food himself.  What a (cute) weirdo.

"I'm ignoring you."

"Oh, you have more vegetables for me?"

"I'm going back to sleep."