Dog Meets Lobster

Okay, I know I also posted this on facebook and some of you have already seen this, but it's really funny. This is our dog Mia last summer when she met a lobster for the first time. I had to tie Moxie out because I knew he wouldn't be afraid - he would just grab the thing in his mouth. Mia, however, is much more cautious about these things.

"I Told You So"

The following little incident took place about a month ago, but I totally forgot to blog about it. So here goes:

Recently we had a lot of mice taking over our house, and we finally decided to buy some traps instead of letting our cat catch them, only to let them go. We discovered this mice problem when I was getting some chocolate chips and walnuts out from my cabinet and found the bags with lots of little holes and bites in them! ICK! (Note: I then was inspired to completely clean out that bottom cabinet, get rid of any food that may have been touched by the mice, as well as anything that was expired - so it was sort of a good thing!) So we set the traps with some peanut butter and placed them safely under the kitchen cabinets where the dogs and cat could not get to them, of course. We always knew when a trap had caught a mouse because our [capable of drug-sniffing] dog would be sitting right in front of the spot with her nose pressed against the cabinet. Quite funny, actually.

So one morning when we came downstairs, we discovered Mia staring at the cabinet, and we knew there was another dead mouse. Scott got the trap out and sure enough, there was Mr. Mouse. So sad. Of course, Mia & Moxie were all excited and quite interested as Scott picked up the trap. Kirsten and I observed, and she was quite amused at all the commotion. Well, as Scott was getting ready to take care of the mouse, he wondered aloud what would happen if he held it up for Mia and Moxie to "look at." I said, "Well I think that Mia would just grab it - she's pretty quick." However, Scott chose not to heed this advice and instead attempted to show them the mouse. He held it slightly above their heads, and before you could say "boo", the mouse AND the trap were inside Mia's mouth! At this point, I think I said, "I told you so."

Scott then proceeded to attempt to get the mouse away from Mia. Let me tell you, when she has something in her mouth that she wants, she DOES NOT give it up easily. Other dogs, like Moxie, will let you push down on their lower jaw enough for you to remove the item. Or they will respond to a command such as "leave it." Not Mia. She is very adamant about holding on to things that she likes. The one way that we often get her to leave things alone is, oddly enough, by telling her to "sit." Somehow, that triggers an obedience nerve in her brain and she usually drops the item out of her mouth. I believe this is how Scott got the item from her, although I had to walk away in exasperation as Scott ate his words...

I only wish I would've had the video camera!

Very Sad Story

Ok, I don't want to be a downer. But I just heard about this story today and I am so saddened. In a nutshell, a mother left her twin babies on her bed while she prepared supper. (Note, these are about 1 month old babies). And, apparently her dogs had access to the babies. One of the dogs (a husky) ended up killing one of the babies. The dog took it off the bed and out into the hallway. It's unclear whether the baby was crying and that's why the dog went to it or what. Anyway, I am just outraged. Unfortunately the dog is being blamed, of course. But honestly why would a parent leave their babies in a place where the dog(s) could get to them? As a mother with 2 dogs, I make sure that my dogs are NEVER left unattended around Kirsten! That would be so stupid. I know that my dogs would not do anything to purposefully hurt her, but they could very possibly do something by accident! And most likely this dog was simply doing something instinctual - if the baby was crying, the dog may have been trying to take it to the owner. Or the dog may have just thought this was a toy. I know that Mia and Moxie have been very curious about Kirsten and at first really didn't know what to think.

So while I definitely think that this is the mother's fault for leaving the babies unattended, I also do feel very badly for her. I cannot imagine the guilt she is experiencing. If anything ever happened to Kirsten and it was something that I could have prevented, I would feel awful. And we are all human, and we do make mistakes. But please, if you own a dog, please make sure you don't leave your baby with the dog unattended!!!