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The ground squirrels or something have been awfully active at the local parks lately…
Photo taken 24 January 2011
At this same park, I once saw a dog stalk a hole until the squirrel got stupid enough to stick its head above ground. Prey located. Two powerful swipes of the dog’s forepaws into the dirt, a quick lunge down the shallow hole to snatch the thing, a crunch and a vigorous shake and a high toss into the air… and it was pretty much over. The dead or dying squirrel landed in a twitching lump right in front of Bowdu, who surprised me by gingerly sniffing it for a couple seconds then walking away. The other dog leapt in to claim her prize, and continued to worry the carcass as we walked away from the scene…
Rodent-killing is usual fare for some dogs, but not mine, so it caught me by surprise. I admit that I yelped when I saw the body fly up in the air, because it all happened so fast, I barely had time to process that this dog had just caught and killed something that just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Bowdu has caught a single house mouse before, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Bowpi develops into a greater hunter. She’s eager to poke her nose into other dogs’ finds (if not their behinds). I think she’s fast enough to snag one if she cornered something and it attempted to dart away.
That other dog in the above two pictures is not Bowdu, nor is she a Shiba. Rather, it’s the most Shiba-like Korean Jindo I’ve ever met. From a distance, I mistook her for a Japanese Akita, but I was corrected. I guess the difference is in the carriage of the tail, her leanness, and other details that I have not developed an eye for. She was accompanied by another Jindo that was more like Jindos I’ve seen in the past — a squarer muzzle and a thicker build. I didn’t get a good picture of the other one, though.
