Dax the Huntress

I've been hesitating to write about this - it's kind of disgusting. But I guess it's part of having dogs. Dax added to her body count Sunday night - she ran down and killed a rabbit in the back yard. That's not the icky part. The grossness is when I pulled her off of the carcass and had to tell her to drop the eyeball. Ewwww.

Dax is the first dog I've ever had, in the decades I've had dogs, that's managed to actually catch anything. All the dogs have run after squirrels and rabbits. A couple had run-ins with skunks (not fun) and one challenged an opossum that was bigger than the dog. But Dax is the first successful hunter in the family.

If you'd have asked me which dog had the greatest prey drive - she wouldn't have been my first choice. She's lackadaisical about playing, doesn't enjoy fetch, and I've had to really work on getting her to play "tug" for agility training. She's really a rather laid-back, cuddly dog most of the time.

It's been a challenge wrapping my brain around this new concept of my adorable baby girl. My friend Betsy thinks I should be proud of her prowess. I'm not quite there yet.

Ooops, she did it again!

Yesterday Dax The Mighty Huntress killed a squirrel.

It wasn't an old squirrel, or a sick squirrel.

It was a too-slow, stupid squirrel.

I was just bringing the dogs back to the house, Golly in the lead. When down the path comes strolling this gray squirrel. It goes nose-to-nose with Golly. They're both startled (you can imagine!) and the squirrel finally figures out "uh-oh," turns around and high-tails it (literally) for the gate at the front of the house.

Dax was in the back yard at the time. She beat the squirrel to the gate.

Fast puppy. Slow squirrel.

My mess to clean.

Killer Frenchie

I had a feeling it would happen. I didn't know when, or who the victim would be, but I knew that sooner or later Dax would claim her first victim.
I thought it was going to be Saturday. When I took the dogs out after work, Dax was the only one that noticed the bunny in our next-door-neighbor's backyard. It took off for the front of the house, Dax matched it for speed all the way. Fortunately for the bunny, there was a chain-link fence between them. Unfortunately for Dax, the fence ends at the front of our house. She had fence-prints on her nose for a bit.
Yesterday Dax was a sniffing around the yard, minding her own business. The other dogs had already gone inside - it was a bit hot for them, but Dax loves it. I know Frenchies aren't supposed to, but I let her bake for a few minutes. My own French Roast.
She was meandering around, sniffing, deciding whether she was "in the mood" to do some business, when a juvenile robin careened into the yard. I saw it heading for disaster, but I couldn't cross the yard fast enough to do anything about it. It flew right into Dax's face. I actually saw the delight in her eyes at the wonderful new toy! She didn't understand when I told her to "leave it," but she did. (Good Girl!) The robin didn't make it. In this case, I do think there's some truth to "too stupid to live."