Last Friday turned out rather surprising. I had to go and deliver a letter to our Town Hall and so the plan was to give Ray an opportunity to explore some new territory. As soon as the letter had been delivered, I let him decide where he wanted to go.

He started off by skirting the parking lot, and then decided to climb across a pile of snow (the parking lot had been recently plowed), and headed generally south west across some undisturbed snow and towards some fir trees which clearly needed investigating. From there he crossed over to a sidewalk and headed south until he reached the first cross street where he turned left (so heading east). He now had my full attention because he seemed to know exactly where he was going and, although I do seem to recall that he had been out this way once before, maybe a little over a year ago, I do not remember any specific location that would capture this much attention.

We were heading for a group of buildings, none of which would I expect to hold any interest for Ray. He stayed on the sidewalk and then suddenly turned onto a pathway which served a number of small businesses including a jewellery store. He passed the jewellers, but continued on the pathway until I saw McDonalds! The fact that he had homed in on McDonalds was no real surprise I guess however, what did surprise me is that he then proceeded to walk right passed it!

He stayed on the pathway through its various turns as it followed the perimeter of the business complex and by now I was really intrigued. We kept passing small businesses, some of which could have some appeal to him, but he just kept going until we came to a point where he left the pathway and headed directly towards a small office building. We were approaching it from the side and it wasn’t until he worked his way around to the front that I realized where we were going. A TD Canada Trust Bank! He then somehow managed to find the front door, even though the only obvious difference from the surrounding tinted glass windows was the handles!

(One of his favourite places to visit downtown is the TD Canada Trust Bank, because the people there are so friendly and they give him biscuits. That branch, however, is at least a 45 minute walk away from where we were now.)

He waited at the front door so I pushed it open and he went straight up to the nearest counter and looked at the person there. He clearly expected more than a smile so he put his front paws up onto the counter top and gave his best “cute dog” look. That did not produce any treats and it was explained that they don’t have dog treats there, although they had been contemplating the idea. I was not going to try and explain contemplation to Ray so I gave him some of the treats that I had in my pocket and we left the bank.

Of course my mind was now trying to rationalize how Ray had made the connection between the two banks. The only conclusion to date is that perhaps they share the same cleaning contractor? Both banks would then smell of the same cleaning chemicals. Other scents that may be associated with banks can be discounted because he generally walks right passed them. I guess on the one hand I must admire his sense of smell, but on the other hand ……………….. where on earth could we ever hide anything from him?