Mongo will eat almost anything. Things he will eat include tomatoes,  apples, pears, lettuce, socks, hats, and rocks. The last three have proved costly to remove.  During one vet trip for intestinal distress, the vet looked at the x-ray and said, “Well, there’s a few pebbles and some loose change in there, but that should all pass. ”  So it did not come as a surprise that Mongo liked cauliflower.  In fact, he’s not the only dog in the family to like cruciform vegetables.  Back in the day, one golden retriever, Hudson, waited until Dad had planted all the broccoli and cauliflower starts in the garden.  Then as soon as Dad went inside, Hudson pulled up all the starts and ran joyously around the backyard munching on them.  Dad caught a glimpse of Hudson reveling in broccoli through the window and sprinted out the back door to find more than half the plants gone.  A fence was eventually had to be installed around the garden to keep Hudson from pillaging the vegetables, when Dad became frustrated that all the almost-ready broccoli florets were disappearing!

However, none of the girl dogs in the family seemed to enjoy leafy greens.  One golden girl, Dixie, did enjoy sneaking strawberries from the planter next to the back door, but that was about it.

So while Dad was using cauliflower as a substitute for cream in an alfredo sauce, it came as no shock that Mongo enjoyed a few cauliflower twigs that Dad tossed to him.  The shock came when Mongo missed a piece of vegetable that Dad tossed at him, and it landed near Spork.  Spork is legendary in the family for being finicky.  She’s been know to turn her nose up at dog food if it has too much filler in it!

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