Why this guy forages for food with a feline friend

Douglas Fir isn't your average berry-picking buddy.

"He's my best friend, and foraging cat," said Shawn Dawson.

Dawson isa full-time forager, who spends much of his time scouring the wilds of Newfoundland for all types of edible treasures, from bakeapples to spruce tips to dandelion greens.

All with a feline in tow.

"Itake him foraging wherever Igo," he told CBC Radio's St. John's Morning Show.

Douglas Fir doesn't spendhis foraging timeoff chasing songbirds, or snoozing in the sunshine while the hard work happens. He's part of the team.

"He follows me around. Every now and then he'll take off, and I'llfind him sitting, waiting for me in a chanterelle patch," said Dawson.

Of course, Douglas Firfollows feline occupational health and safety rules while on the job.

He wears a snazzy, blaze orangeharness Dawson calls "his safety vest," to ensure no hunter mistakes the fluffyorange tabby for supper.

Douglas Fir himself was foraged a friend of Dawson's found him as a kitten, abandoned in the woods.

Dawson adopted him, and the two have rarely been apart ever since.

"Ijust raised him in my pocket. He's been to every restaurant downtown, 'til he couldn't fit in my pocket anymore. Igot him on a leash now," he said.

• Meet the full-time forager filling local restaurants' mushrooming demand for wild food

Dawson said an artist in St. John's is now working on a children's book about Douglas Fir.

"The premise of the book is he's going to go around and sustainably forage berries and mushrooms and spring shoots and stuff like that."

Read more articles from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador