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The dogs catch a squirrel
We got our first dog five years ago, and once we started stking them for
walks in the woods it became obvious that high on their list of favorite activities was chasing the rodent, beit rabbit, chipmunk, or squirrel. Later, when we moved next to the forest, the rodents became not only the interesting moving squeeky toy, but also the evil creatures that continually taunted them by squeaking safely outside the back yard fence. In spite of their great passion for the chase our dogs were largely incompetant at it. Between the jingles of the tags on their collars, Peanut's tendency to bark when excited, and Smokey's big gallumping mass, they never managed to surprise their prey. The squirrels would excape up into the trees, the rabbits and chipmunks into burrows or dense thickets. The dogs would then again suffer the taunts of their enemies. For their owners this was all for the best. Seeing the rodents chattering away in safety, while the dogs struggled in vain was a great source of amusement. Besides, what would we do if they finally managed to catch one. They were too small for us to eat, and uncooked they were a potential source of rabies, plague, or hantavirus. Finally, they werre too cute, particularly the local Abert squirrel (1), with its tassel ear tufts and particularly bushy tail. Still a few months ago, whil walking with my wife, the dogs finally found a squirrel on a barren hillside and were able to catch it by working together. Yesterday my mind was not concerned with squirrels when we started our walk. If I had, I would never have considere the possibility of the dogs catching anything, as the trail was in a canyon full of Ponderosa Pine's untouched by the fire, and between the trees and ciffs a squirrel should easilly escape. Instead I mostly focussed on the trail, checking the light snow cover to ensure that it didn't hide some ice where a slip could reinjure my knee, or mud that could make a mess, occaisionally checking my dogs to see if they were doing something I needed to clean up, sometimes drifting off to nowhere land. What! I see a medium sized orange colored dog well dowwn the trail. How did she get that far ahead of me. I thought she was trailng behind me. "Peanut, Come!" She's not coming, again. What's that noise to my right! It sounds like a dog chasing somethiing. Could Peanut have chased something down there and that's why she's paying less than her usual attention? There's Smokey to my right. Looks like he's treed a squirrel! Peanut is now there too! How did she get back up here? She can be fast, but that fast! The squirrel jumped from one Ponderosa to another. Jeeze that tree's small. I wouldn't have gone there. But the squirrel's still out of reach of the dogs. I'll go on. They'll follow once they give up. What's that noise! Was the squirrel dumb enough! Yes he's down on the ground with my three dogs after him. Three dogs? One of them the same size and color as Peanut. Peanut has the squirrel. It looks like it is still moving. If I get there quickly maybe I can free it. The other dog approaches Peanut. It looks like Peanut growls and bites down to get a firm grip in case the other dog tries to take it. The squirrel is definately not moving. The dog does not try to take it from her. Someone down the trail is calling a dog, probably the dog in front of Peanut. She looks like a small golden. Very lanky and not chesty like Peanut. Hair long and soft, not Peanut's shorter coarse hair. The golden is far more interested in my dogs and the squirrel, than in its owner. I put a leash on Peanut and get to drop the squirrel. Getting her to drop the squirrel was easy, far easier than it would be with Smokey. The golden picks it up. She is still far more interested in my dogs and the squirrel than in her owner. We walk halfway to the owner. The golden notices her master. Seems to think, "Oh, he's calling me!" and runs off to join him, still carrying the squirrel. We follow at a distance. When they are out of sight I let Peanut off the leash. After a while we reach the squirrel left by the side of the path. Peanut picks it up, but, when asked, drops it. It mustn't be interesting now that it no longer squeeks. We go on. (1) For some reason I thought it was spelled Ebert, but googling Ebert squirrel mostly gets you wildlife movie reviews, plus a few people whose spelling is as incorrect as mine. |
#2
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The dogs catch a squirrel
IChewedThroughMyRestraints_HelpMePryTheBarsOffThe wrote in message ... IChewedThroughMyRestraints_HelpMePryTheBarsOffTheW indow wrote: HOWEDYwilliam clodius you pathetic miserable stinkin animal murderin punk thug coward active accute chronic life long incurable malignant maliciHOWES mental case, Dang! Looks like I have to update my newsreader kill-file. Mr. Howe has changed his newsgroup handle. The "IChewedThroughMyRestraints..." message snuck through. Unfortunately, I think he scares many people off of this list (and those other lists that he crossposts to), as evidenced by the observation that he is responsible for 90% of the recent postings. |
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