Animal lovers’ hearts have melted at a tiny golden retriever puppy still remembering where he once found a treat.
Weeks have passed since retriever puppy Rufus found a piece of chicken while on a walk with his owner, but every day he checks back in the same place—just in case.
His owner, who lives in the United Kingdom, regularly shared updates on life with her pup to TikTok account @ruffitsrufus, and on February 19 showed off Rufus’ new daily habit.
She wrote over the video: “Rufus found a piece of fried chicken here a few weeks ago and now checks every day just in case it’s come back.”
The clip shows Rufus, secured in his leash and harness, standing with his paws up against a low wall, staring and sniffing in the hopes of finding the same treat as before. After sniffing at some plants and finding nothing, he drops down to the ground and has another extra look at the edge of the wall, just in case.
His owner shared the video with a caption pointing out how he “looks at me like I’m going to help find it.”
TikTok users loved it, watching the video hundreds of times, as one commenter joked: “Someone should place a chicken nugget there for him now and again,” with another agreeing that was a “wonderful idea.”
One user called it “amazing,” with yet another declaring that you “can never be too sure.”
Dogs have been shown to possess episodic‑like memory, meaning, like humans, they can recall specific past events.
One study published in Current Biology examined how dogs were able to recall their owners’ earlier actions when later unexpectedly requested to imitate them, but found that these memories decreased faster the longer the test was delayed.
This ability to remember incidentally encoded events—the hallmark of episodic memory—indicates a more complex cognitive process than simple learned associations.
Later research also found that dogs can recall their own past actions, not just human ones—such as Rufus finding the chicken, and later remembering that this had happened, and where, leading him to search again and again.
Newsweek has contacted @ruffitsrufus via TikTok for comment on this story.
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