Truffles #4

From time to time I wondered where my family was. These thoughts brought an ache to my heart.

Then lying around and watching the sky, I would decide to look at the clouds or down at the grass or the flowers > because thinking of my family left me too sad.

My truffle training continued and apparently made my human friends happy. They would take me out to the woods more often and give me more treats and say more kind things to me. This all happened in the fall when the warm, sunny days became shorter and cloudier and sometimes rainier.

One year, I remember someone coming in the middle of the night (very quietly). They tiptoed and after freeing me from the pen, led me down the road. They tempted with sweet treats so I would go into a wagon.

I ended up in a new barn where it was very dark - I couldn’t see outside. Thankfully, I didn’t end up there for long. Soon, my familiar human friends showed up with a man who looked in charge. I got into another wagon that took me back to the same barn I had always known.

It was all quite confusing.

I just kept watching the clouds and the grass and flowers. At certain times of year - when the weather started to cool - I would be led to the woods again to root around and look for truffles.

Truffles are interesting things. You can’t really plan what size they are... or how many you find... or even when or where they are found.

Apparently some people really like them and are willing to pay a good deal for these smelly things. I wish I had seen some of that truffle sale money, but the humans kept it. My only bonus was an occasional donut.

Eventually I became so good at finding truffles and knowing all about them, I was taken to a street market to help choose the best truffles.

Then one day, out of the blue, I was taken to Paris. This was apparently a real city, and there were a lot more people compared to my country life.

I was often left in the truffle shop alone, but occasionally supervised by a nice human. When people would come, I would sniff through the truffles and know which one they would enjoy and they would leave happy.

Like anything valuable, there are fakes. I’ve heard people try to slip in truffles from other places and pretend they are as good as the truffles where I am from. Well, let me say “They are not!”

I can smell those fakes a mile away - okay maybe only a few feet away. But you get the idea!

The things some people think of and think they can get away with - hogwash!