You know what’s fun? Waking up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water, walking on your hardwood floor, and feeling a small, hard object dig in to the bottom of your foot.

Definitely not a rock…turns out it’s one of the countless pieces of kibble Pom Pom has stashed around the house.

I don’t exactly remember when Pom started this little “hoard and guard” habit, but it’s goes something like this:

Whenever she’s done eating her food, Pom will take one of the leftover pebbles out of her bowl over to where she wants to sit. Then, she sits in front of the pebble and stares at it. When any of the other animals get too close to her or the pebble, she’ll cover up the pebble and give them the “Don’t Touch My Pebble!” look.

Casper and the cats could care less, but in Pom’s mind, that stale piece of Newman’s Own dog food is the last nugget of gold on Earth.

My favorite part is when she leaves one pebble behind to go get another one from her dish, and Casper walks by and eats up the abandoned pebble without breaking stride.

However, by the end of the day, there are usually a good handful of pebbles scattered in blankets, on the couch–in our bed a couple of times. Soon enough, I’m going to find one in my food at a restaurant in Portland. It’s just my destiny at this point.

I think I’ll pick up all the pebbles off the floor before bed tonight. I don’t want to be the guy at the hospital who stepped on a dog food pebble in the middle of the night and somehow broke his foot.