Therapy dog, vermin catcher

The Farmer and I went to visit Dad today. I took Phoenix with, at Mom's request. She didn't know if Dad would respond to him or not. I think maybe she just wanted to enjoy having a dog around for a day.

Who'd have thunk it - wild Phoenix was a great therapy dog. Dad recognized him and had a big smile. Once Phoenix figured out how to get on the bed (not easy with rails), he spent the day snuggling with Dad. ("You mean you WANT me on the bed? And you want me to STAY there? Well, all right then!") It was a good visit.

When we got home, I sat down at the computer to catch up on e-mail. Wasn't long before I was watching a hummingbird outside the dining room window. It was the first one I've seen this summer, a little shiny green thing about the size of my thumb. Yep, a shiny object, took my mind right off what I was doing.

Then I realized Phoenix was staring out the window, too, totally rigid, tail straight up (that is NEVER a good thing), making squeaking noises like he might launch into orbit at any moment. I was trying to decide if he was that excited about a hummingbird when I realized there was a 13-striped ground squirrel standing on the old barn timber that edges the flower bed along the patio.

At least I think it was a 13-striped ground squirrel. It didn't stand there long enough for me to count the stripes. It took off, zipping around in my flowers, scattering mulch and stopping long enough to eat a blossom off a moss rose here and there. 

Now look here, you little SOB! I have put up with bugs, moles, the occasional errant steer and three male dogs who have no respect for flowers. There's a raccoon that lives in the machine shed where I park my van who leaves 'coon prints across the windshield and I run a trap line for field mice who think they can move into the basement whenever they please. I was NOT having ground squirrels in my flower bed.

I whistled for the dogs and outside we went. Phoenix nearly went through the back porch door before I could unlatch it. That ground squirrel shot into the window well with Phoenix in hot pursuit. Yeah, straight through my flower bed. A 50-pound malinois does more damage than a 6-ounce ground squirrel but who's counting.

I didn't really think Phoenix would catch it. My intent was to put the fear of doG into that pushy little varmint and send him packing out of the area, just in case he was considering settling down and raising a family. So Phoenix is pouncing in the flowers (tail still straight up in the air) and I'm dancing around, yelling "Get him! Get him!", once again really glad we do not have close neighbors.

Before I knew it, Phoenix pounced and came up with that ground squirrel in his mouth. Holy buckets! Now what! He vaulted out of the flower bed and went prancing around the yard, totally enchanted with his prize, the other two dogs following him with great interest in this potential snack item, and I'm thinking I just spent Big Bucks worming all three dogs for tapes and now here we go again.

There is a big difference between catching and killing. Phoenix is clearly not a terrier. He did not dispatch the critter. Apparently he was not even holding it very tightly because in a flash, the ground squirrel leaped free and was on the ground, running pell-mell for the fence. It darted through the fence into the perennial border on the south side of the fence and disappeared.

Nothing would do but what Phoenix had to follow, to the immediate peril of a clump of miniature hollyhocks and one daylily. That ground squirrel was no where to be seen. Hopefully, he's still running.

Phoenix is keeping vigil at the dining room window. I'm sure I'll know if it comes back.

I haven't seen my hummingbird since then, either.