Every man wants a dog who’ll fetch an oil filter - well, here he is. How do pictures like this end up in the paper? Nowadays if you called the paper and said "my dog fetches oil filters," they'd pretend to take your name and address while making one-handed stroking motions, then hang up. Was it different then? Yes. In 1951, Cedric Adams, the Star columnist, nominated this dog, Scout, as the smartest in the upper midwest, based on a reader's description of Scout's skills. The paper sent a photographer. Apparently the dog was able to retrieve parts, tools and other items on command.

Poor Scout lives in hell - a gas station is pungent enough to human noses; imagine what it smells like to a dog. Overpowering , deeply unnatural - although there's the consolation of the gas station lavatory, always a rich font of many fascinating odors. To put it crudely: Most dogs content themselves with sniffing the butt-efforts of their immediate family. Scout had access to dozens of asses every day.

You know from this picture that he was a wonderful dog. I hope he lived long and passed with ease.