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| Ragweed — yum? |
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| Oak leaves — just fine? |
As summer starts to edge towared autumn, Gus’s browsing preferences seem to be changing a bit with the season. Whereas clover never gave him a thrill in spring, now that it’s blossoming it’s a huge favorite, worth strolling around in search of. The bedstraw is acceptable, but not the special treat it seemed to be when it was young. To my surprise, the carrot-cousin Queen Anne’s lace is still shunned; same for chicory and burdock and ragweed — until suddenly today he yanks up a big, multistalked, green-flowering ragweed plant and systematically chews and swallows the whole thing. Wha-a-a-a??
Gus’s first choice is always grasses, especially if the blades are long and wide and rank, as they are under the fences where the mower spares them, and in the fenny and thickety areas where they’re overfertilized by proximity to old manure piles. He also enjoys the mower-spewed cuttings when they lie on top of the recently cut lawns. This fodder, though, is neither fresh like live plants nor cured like hay, so I worry that it could be mouldy or fermenting or otherwise unhealthy. But this is the animal who blithely eats oak leaves with no apparent ill effects, so I guess he can digeset old grass clippings too.
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