As dogs and squirrels do, Jessie and the squirrels in the yard have a love/hate relationship. Jessie hates them, and the squirrels love to taunt her. You know the game, where they see just how far down the tree or how far out onto the grass they can go to make her attack with a crazed fervor, only to have them dart to safety at the last second and then sit just out of reach making obnoxious squirrel sounds. Repeat as necessary until everyone involved will be getting a good night’s sleep tonight.
Jessie’s slowed down a few steps (she’s now 13-½ years old) and often ignores them these days, but a new crop of squirrels have grown up or moved in and they’ve been giving her all sorts of grief. It helps her keep her dog-ish figure to chase one every now and then.
This afternoon when I came home, as is often the case, the sound of me parking and then locking the car set off a round of barking and howling from the back yard. (I hope that she doesn’t do that all day long when we’re gone — I’ve always hated having neighbors who had dogs that did that and they didn’t do anything about it. It’s better than having dogs that bark and howl all night long, but it’s still annoying, and I don’t ever want to be that neighbor. On the other hand, we’ve never gotten a call or a note, so if she’s being annoying, she’s not annoying enough to make anyone complain.) Sometimes she’ll trot to the gate to see if it’s me (or The Long-Suffering Wife), but not today.
I went into the back yard, expecting to find her lounging in one of her shady spots in the dirt (it’s a dog thing) but instead found her out in the sun on the patio. Still howling and barking as I walked up to her. (In addition to losing a step in her advancing years, I suspect she’s also getting a wee bit deaf and blind.) When she finally sees me she jumps up — and grabs the dead squirrel that she had been guarding.
I’ve never seen any sign that she has ever actually caught one, let alone killed it. We’ve had them die of disease and wind up on the ground (gross!) and we’ve had them fall into the hot tub and drown (really gross!), but she’s never paid any attention to those. The one she’s got now seems healthy enough, except of course for the spots where something’s been gnawing on it. It might have fallen and been injured before Jessie got to it, but I’m not doing an autopsy (rodent-opsy? squirrel-opsy?) to find out.
So, behold, Jessie, the mightiest hunter of the neighborhood, ruler of all she surveys, killer of squirrels! (Please, dear God, don’t let it go to her head, especially if the next critter she runs into is a skunk!)
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 