A Chihuahua's Face Magically Appears in a Blueberry Muffin

Is Kaelin Bell's pet dog the new Virgin Mary of baked goods? We wonder.

Usually, when I read about people who see a striking resemblance between their food and something else, the story tends towards the religious. There's a whole tradition of Jesus and his mother spontaneously making appearances on toast, muffins, Marmite lids, breakfast tacos, and the occasional cluster of shower mold. Some people find these not only inspirational, but financially profitable.

In 2005, Donna Lee of Point Place, Ohio, was cooking pierogis for Easter when she found one with the face of Jesus. The divine pierogi went for $1,775 on eBay. But as divinely decorated baked goods go, that was chicken feed. The year before, a grilled-cheese sandwich with Jesus' face sold for $28,000. (Last year, Michael Leaverton documented how Jesus appeared on a dog's "caboose," but we don't think the dog's owner resorted to selling the holy canine.)

In that context, my first thought on reading about Kaelin Bell was to wonder whether a religion might sprout up around Chico, her pet Chihuahua. The 14-year-old posted a picture on her Tumblr page comparing Chico to the blueberry muffin that she was about to eat.

"My blueberry muffin looks exactly like my dog," she wrote. "I'm gonna cry."

Whereas the pierogi, the grilled-cheese sandwich, and even the Shroud of Turin look like cases of desperately overactive imaginations to me, I have to admit: There is an uncanny resemblance in this photo between Chico and the muffin. They're both kind of adorable, actually.

Unlike the three things above, it doesn't look like Kaelin and her family will get much money from the muffin.

"I couldn't eat it," she told The Huffington Post. "So we froze it in a plastic bag. My dad is wondering if we'll be able to sell it, but, so far, no one has offered to buy it."

On the other hand, thanks to coverage of the funny photo by Buzzfeed, The Huffington Post, and now us, Chico might well be on the way to being the next Internet meme, which is kind of like becoming a religious figure. And, as we saw with the Jamaican bobsled team yesterday, sometimes the right meme can be worth money.

Kaelin is very excited about all the attention, but she says that Chico has remained blissfully unaware of all the fuss.

"Today, he just laid in bed," she told HuffPo. "He's now realizing he's an Internet sensation."

Via The Huffington Post and Kaelin's Tumblr

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Archer wins the muffin tin game!

Archer triumphed this morning! He won the muffin tin game; beating Bashir, the reigning champion, by ten seconds.

Now granted the competition was small, just the four dogs in my household, and Archer is definitely the most food motivated, but this is the first time he beat Bashir so I have to give him some accolades. Yeah, Archer!

I had a hundred (or more) chores that needed to get done this morning but part way through decided the dogs and I needed to play a game. Chores are boring and I enjoy having fun with the dogs. I think the muffin tin game was an interruption between rotating the laundry and vacuuming.

I didn’t invent the muffin tin game so can’t take any credit for it. I’d like to thank who ever did because my dogs all have great fun with it. I use a 12 hole muffin tin because a 6 hole one is too easy. Place a treat in each hole and then cover the treat with a tennis ball. Place the tin on the floor and let your dog figure it out.

With multiple dogs, I play the game in in the garage with one dog while the other dogs remain in the house. Although all four can hold down stays while one of them plays, the dog who’s playing gets a little nervous with the other three whining, staring, and leaning his direction.

Each of my four have slightly different techniques. Bashir uses his paws a lot; he scrapes the ball out of the hole with his claws. He also thinks alot; if he knocks a ball out of the hole and it slips into an empty hole where he’s already gotten the treat, he won’t go back there. As the character in Jurassic Park said, “He remembers.”

Riker, the 11 years old, is the slowest of my four but is very deliberate. He sniffs each ball and muffin tin hole and noses the ball out of the way.

Sisko, the puppy, is also a thinker, uses his nose very well, and like Bashir, isn’t fooled when a ball rolls to cover an empty hole. Sisko also gets the most distance on the balls when he paws or noses them out of the way. I was picking them up all over the garage as he was searching for treats.

Archer is the most frantic about the game, pawing, nosing, and grabbing at the balls. Unfortunately, sometimes he’s so intent on getting the treats he doesn’t stop to think or smell and keeps going back to empty holes.

I started timing the dogs because as they got the hang of the game, it took them less time them to empty the tin. I was curious exactly how fast they were. When I first started timing them, it took most of the dogs more than a minute to get all twelve treats and often Riker still takes that long. In today’s contest, Archer got all of the treats in 25 seconds. Bashir was second with 35 seconds. Sisko was third at 40 seconds and Riker took 75 seconds. Yeah, Archer!

Of course I didn’t include the score of about five seconds when Bashir picked up the tin and flipped it over. That’s cheating.

Photos: (top) Archer; (middle) Riker; (bottom) Bashir. All photos by Liz Palika

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