Last night, as the thunderstorms moved through, Molly was a quivering scaredy dog, sitting with her head on my lap through supper and the hours after while the thunder claps boomed out. She was unwilling to get more than a couple of inches from me as I moved around the house. I felt a lot like I had a needy two year old tot on my hands. {*grin*} Molly eventually fell asleep at my feet in the office, jumping up ready to follow anytime she though I might be about to move. She finally deigned to go outside for her nightly ablutions around 11:30pm, but only after I stepped out with her.
This morning saw Molly transformed into an independent lady. With no thunderstorms in the area, she couldn't wait to get out into the yard. She sat on the patio looking out into the yard, waiting for the appearance of either a squirrel or the birds. She had no desire to come back in the house for breakfast, she was busy! As she sat there regally scanning her domain, I wondered what she might be thinking. What do you think?
(Sorry about the picture through the window screen, but you get the idea.) She lays/sits there on the patio with her head on a swivel, scanning her yard, just waiting for something to need herding. When she thinks she has spotted something, she jumps up and sprints for the closest place to jump up and try to herd the airborne miscreant. Even after all this time, she still hasn't caught on that she cannot jump high enough to reach the flying birds overhead nor the squirrels running on the suspended cable wires. So after a bit, she resorts to stealth and attempts to sneak up on the marauders.
(What you can't see is the squirrel on the trunk of the tree opposite Molly.) At that point she will do a standing jump vertically and clear even the white fence in height. Doesn't do her any good, because the squirrels just scamper up the pine tree, out on the branch, and then onto the cable wires. There they will sit and taunt her. They wait until she has quit jumping and barking and then they throw pinecones down at her. That starts the whole process over again and it repeats until all parties call for a break and a snooze in the sun. The rules of the game seem to be understood by both sides, because when Molly does manage to catch a squirrel on the ground, she waits for it to get back up the tree before persuing. Likewise the squirrels always seem to end up with pinecones to throw down at Molly.
The other day, there was a young squirrel that obviously didn't understand this game that started crawling down the utility pole head first while Molly was standing and jumping and barking at the base. The squirrel would come down to within a few inches of the apex of where Molly was leaping, then wait for Molly to make an all out effort for a taller leap. Just as Molly would leap, the squirrel would reverse field and run up the pole. This cycled on and on for nearly 45 minutes until I called Molly in and the momma squirrel started chittering like mad at the young squirrel. I suspect I know what the momma squirrel was saying. It undoubtedly involved phrases like "be careful" and "don't go down that pole" and probably ended with "don't do that again". All I asked Molly was if she was satisfied now. She just grinned at me.
So what do you thing Molly was thinking? What do you think the momma squirrel had to say?
oh the mind of a dog...who can figure that out. And I think the squirrel is even harder to comprehend.
ReplyDeleteIf you ever have the opportunity to see the movie 'Up', you should.
ReplyDeleteThey put transmitters around the dogs necks which capture what they are thinking. The author who captured the dog's thoughts was a genius. Squirrel is a definite all consuming thought by the dogs.