①Like many other dogs, Scruff loves to play with plastic bottles. David Grant and his wife Yvonne Faulkner-Grant always let their 13-year-old dog pick up the plastic bottles he finds while out on their daily walks.
②In 2021, David and Yvonne noticed Scruff could find even the most well-hidden bottles. They also noticed there was more and more litter in their town. They couldn't believe that people were littering(乱扔) so much since they were both taught never to drop their trash as children.
③At the start of 2022, David and Yvonne decided to start picking up the bottles. They also decided to train Scruff to gather other people's trash.
④"When he picked a bottle up in 2021, he would carry it for a while and then drop it again. People would think we were dropping litter. But it wasn't our litter," said Yvonne, "so we got him to start bringing the bottles to us and we put them in a bag and then counted them up."
⑤Since starting this journey, Scruff has become famous in his neighborhood. Everybody loves him.
⑥ ▲ They hope that more people will hear scruff's story and either stop dropping the trash or, perhaps, try picking it up themselves. What's more, they think Scruff has taken on his duties so well that other dogs could easily be trained to do what he does as well.
⑦"We walk the same route(路线) every day and he finds bottles on that route every day," said David. "We feel proud that we are picking them up, but a bit angry that they're even there," Yvonne agrees.
⑧Scruff has collected1,334 bottles. David and his wife think Scruff has done a really great job.
⑨And so do we! Picking up litter while taking a walk is a healthy habit that many of us could add to our lives.
