Five Dogs, Two Rabbits and One Opossum

Editorial Warning: The following entry is not for the weak of heart or stomach. You have been warned.

Hello again! Wow, two days in a row. Maybe Mom has turned over a new leaf ... Nah, she just is feeling a little guilty.

Like we said yesterday, so much has happened in the last month. Today we are going to share our mighty hunting experiences. Since we live out in the country, we see a lot of animals we didn't get to see when we lived in the city. Over three years ago when we were still in the city, we had a successful hunt when a squirrel got into the yard. Andy was not in the family at the time while Maggie and Jake were our foster sister and brother instead of our cousins.

Since then we had not had a successful hunt. We would see rabbits and birds and squirrels and cows but, other than the cow who was always on the other side of the fence where we couldn't get to her, the rest of them moved too fast when we spied them in our yard. WELL ... we are crafty hunters and we figured out where the rabbits were coming from so ... we laid in wait. And sure enough a rabbit came through the fence. We pounced, we cut off the escape route, we were ruthless, we were victorious!! (Queue up "We Are The Champions!") Of course, now there was the problem of dividing up the spoils. We were working it out when Jake grabbed the head and ran into the house. Mom was sitting on the sofa and asked him what he had. Jake was trying to block it from her view but she moved him to the side. We didn't realize that "What the heck? OMG! GROSS! Get away from that!" was code for "Good job, you mighty and fearless hunters". We also didn't realize that Mom would take Jake's prize and toss it over the fence. (By "take" we mean use a whisk broom to put "it" on a dustpan.) The rest of us were thinking it was his own fault for going into the house. We had our parts outside and they were safe. But, what's this? Mom surmised that if there was a rabbit's head then a rabbit's body couldn't be too far away. She found Roxie protecting her part and Andy protecting his part. The details are a little too graphic but you should know that we think internal organs are yummy. That was Monday.

On Tuesday, Mom hears us barking outside again in the same place that she stole our prizes the day before. She comes outside and sees, yes, another dead rabbit. This one is still in one piece. Very dead but in one piece. She tells everydog to get away and stay away. She goes to get the trusty whisk broom and dustpan and ... over the fence our second kill goes. For the record we do not think this is at all fair since we did all of the hard work.

The next day we are barking by the fence where she tossed our hard work so Mom comes out to investigate. Through the trees, she sees one or two coyotes or wild dogs. We are besides ourselves with frustration because they got to have our rabbits!

So the rest of the week goes along and Saturday morning dawns. We are outside checking around. Mom isn't sure what happened and we aren't telling but Mom hears more barking. So here she comes to break up the party. Andy and Roxie are playing tug-o-war with an opossum while the rest of us are cheering them on. Mom yells for Aunt Bec who comes over to see the fun. Then they yell at us to get away! Geez, can't dogs have any fun around here? What's the point of living in the country if we can't try country food? Sammy, Maggie and Jake run for the front door and Aunt Bec follows to lock them in the house. Mom stands guard near the opossum so Andy and Roxie can't come back. Aunt Bec comes back and they chase down the last two of us who have freedom and lock them away. We didn't get to see what happened after that but the opossum was on the other side of the fence when we got back outside. Mom took pictures of the opossum after the tug-o-war match but decided to spare you the images.

So we had a very exciting week though it was also filled with disappointment and frustration. We heard Mom tell Aunt Bec "You get the next three." What do you suppose that means?