Hockey and The Flinstones

The worst thing about the Flintstones is just how right they were about some things. Foot-powered vehicles? Would have been great now that gas is topping 3 dollars a gallon. Giant Brontosaurus ribs? Economical means of feeding a modern-day nuclear family for a week, (at least). But finally, it seems, modern-day folks are catching up to their animated stone-age predecessors by employing animal appliances. Or something like that:

Many a friendly game of pickup hockey has come to a screeching halt when the puck sails over the boards and torpedoes into the nearest snowbank, not to be seen until the season is over.

But a buried puck is no match for Moxie, an eight-year-old American golden retriever who routinely finds them at Fairfield Park's outdoor rink, not far from Ogilvie and Blair roads.

"I don't know how he finds them. The smell, I guess," says owner Mark Richards. "I've never seen an animal as intuitive as he is."

... Moxie's gift is well known in the neighbourhood. Richards says he sometimes answers the door to local kids who ask: "Hey, can we borrow your dog for a minute?"

Granted, the puck-fetching dog isn't quite as useful as, say, a bird record player or mastodon vacuum - which we are for the record still waiting on, Science - but it's a step in the right direction just the same. At least until PETA gets wind of it.

(Follow the link for a video of Moxie.)

Ottawa Citizen: Meet Moxie, the golden (puck) retriever