I’m being lobbied hard to get a dog. I received this in my inbox this morning - a snippet of an email from my sister-inlaw, the dog’s current owner…

“…We learned a new trick he does. He chases his own tale on command for fun and was trained to pick up beer caps and bring them to his owner. - was taught that so teh father could find out if his under age kids were drinking, and apparently busted them often because of this trick. I'm not sure if he still does it, but handy to re-train so you can be lazy if you drop stuff. Like a sock and you don't want to have to bend over to pick it up, train him to pick anything up on command and you're good to go. He's at the right height you wouldn't have to bend over at all.”

A dog that can pick up after me? This might have potential.