07 May 2009

Oscar Instinct

on a night hunt
I was hard at work this afternoon when my daughter walked in the house, back from the bus stop. I asked where her brother was, "outside, Dad", and within a few minutes he stuck his head in the door and said that our wiener dog Oscar was chewing on a dead squirrel in the back yard.

Oh great. I remember once having to pry a dead frog out the roof of his mouth and began reliving this in my head as I walked out the door. I found the dog hovering over a baby squirrel. A baby squirrel that was not dead, but was laying on its back and moving its front paw and opening and closing its mouth as if to say "save me".

I told the dog to back off and he immediately locked it in his jaws again. So I yelled at the dog and smacked his snout. I got him off the furry little critter, but clearly this was not a good thing as I had to explain to the kids that I might have to put it out of its misery. I felt sick to my stomach. It gasped a minute or two longer, then gave up the ghost. I buried it in our pet cemetery full of moles, birds, rabbits and the snakes from last year.

And as mad as I was at our dog for killing the baby squirrel that unfortunately wandered into our back, fenced in yard, I realized its just instinct for him. In fact, instinct that is reinforced by my own actions. You see, wiener dog has a small, stuffed squirrel about the same size as the deceased, that squeaks. I torment the dog with this and get him riled up about "getting the squeaky squirrel" throwing it and wrestling it out of his jaws.

He just happened to find a real one this time. I still felt awful as I gently shoveled the dirt over the shallow grave.

3 comments:

Luke said...

Don't feel too bad, my female dog has eaten two birds. And my male dog has tried to attack many times, including breaking a window to get to a UPS man. They are just doing there job.

hoosier reborn said...

Luke,
I'd be more impressed if our dog did his job and caught the moles in the yard. Always good reading about the great things happening with your church plant. God speed.

Luke said...

And I would be more impressed if our dog didn't try so hard to guard our yard from the lab next door.
thanks man.

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