The Further Adventures of Frodo the Faller – chicken soup

A few days after the bird cake incident Frodo the Faller attempted to swipe a pan of chicken soup from the hob, spilling much of it in the process which he was then able to ingest at speed. For those who may not be aware, Dalmatians are almost as adept and certainly as speedy at siphoning food as Labradors. Anyway, suffice it to say that the cooker was awash with well-seasoned soup, onions and bones – and onions are not a recommended food for dogs, being potentially toxic. I quickly cleared up most of the mess, leaving the cleaning of the hob burners until later because one of our daughters was visiting briefly and I wanted to spend some time with her.

Later that evening I finished cleaning the cooker but then noticed that one of the burners was missing. It wasn't very big, about one and a half inches (three centimetres) across. I hunted everywhere, sifted through the rubbish twice (ugh!) shone torches into areas possibly big enough for it to have spun under - no joy! I was forced to the conclusion that Frodo had swallowed it, along with the soup. My husband was not pleased, either with Frodo or me (though he was the unnamed one who had left the porch door open, allowing Jenna-the-Labrador and Frodo the Faller access to the bird cakes previously. People in glass houses and all that . . . !) Our Britannia range was a smart and recent installation in our kitchen.

Frodo slept soundly that night and the following morning he sucked down his breakfast, scanned all the work-tops for potential snacks, bumbled around glued to my leg and finally settled down to sleep. He seemed perfectly well and I assumed nature would take its course - the burner was brass so would have been easy to spot!! Though I watched carefully for the next few days, nothing remotely resembling a brass burner came to light; eventually I convinced myself that I must have picked it up in the wads of kitchen towel I had used to soak up the soup.

Claire at the Britannia service centre was most helpful and managed not to laugh when I told her the sorry tale. In fact, as the range was still under guarantee, I received a free replacement burner within a couple of days of contacting her.

I haven't made chicken soup since!