Animal Insting

I've been living here for over a month now, which is long enough to sort of get a feel for the place.  Of course, it's not long enough to make me really believe Mom when she says I will never ever have to move to another home, because it seems like I have moved around a lot in the last year or so.

Anyway, one big plus about this place is that there are lots of squirrels.  I'd say that squirrel-hunting is my favorite thing to do in life -- well, that and sleeping -- so it's good to have lots of squirrels around.  In the back yard here, there is a huge, tall oak tree, and the squirrels like to build nests up there.  So then, of course, they are always having to cross the yard so they can run up the tree to their nests.  Well, unless they jump over to the oak tree from the branch of one of the neighbors' trees.

It hardly seems fair that squirrels can climb trees, and I can't.  If they would just stay on the ground, we could have an equal competition, and I am sure I could outrun them.  Or if they would just go up very short trees, then I would be able to reach and grab them, because I am a tall dog.  

One thing I like to do is just stay out in the yard for a long time, watching and listening for squirrels.  They're all around, you know.  Sometimes they run along the tops of the fences.  And sometimes I can hear them digging up acorns in the yard nextdoor.  Mom gets upset with me if I stay out squirrel-hunting for too long.  I don't know why she is so uptight about this.  It's really annoying.

I stayed out 45 minutes one morning when it was 9 degrees.  Mom was worried that I would get frostbite, but I didn't.  I didn't even notice that my feet were cold, because who can think about stuff like cold feet when there are squirrels around?  Another time I stayed out for two hours, but it was lots warmer then.  It was in the low 30s, and my feet hardly got cold at all.

Now that the weather is nicer, and all the snow melted, Mom has been taking us dogs out walking.  I get to go on the first walk because I'm the most impatient of all, and Mom could hardly make me stay in the house while she was taking Barry and Mel out to walk.  So she figured out that it was just easier to let me go first.


Mom said she likes to take me for a walk because when she walks me, she can actually get some exercise.  This is because I don't stop to pee on every tree and bush and fire hydrant, like Mel and Barry do.  I spend most of my time with my head up, trotting along, so I can see any squirrels that might be around.  And usually there are quite a few of them to see.  I'd like to chase them, but Mom keeps me on a leash, so I can't.  I find this really frustrating, but Mom says it's for my own good, so I won't run off and get hit by a car.  As if I'd be dumb enough to just run across a road without stopping to look both ways while I was chasing a squirrel!  But Mom says greyhounds have been known to do this before, and I can't convince her that she is just being overly cautious.

If it weren't for the leash, though, I'm sure I could catch some of those squirrels before they go up a tree.  Oh, but guess what we saw yesterday when we were walking -- a possum!  Yep, there it was, strolling boldly along the sidewalk in broad daylight.  I just stopped and watched because I haven't seen all that many possums before.  Mom said they usually only come out at night, so she thought maybe we shouldn't get to close to it, in case something was wrong with it, like maybe it had rabies or something.  I'm not worried about that because I've had my rabies vaccination, but Mom hasn't had one.  So we just went home without chasing the possum, even though I know I could have caught it because it was lots slower than a squirrel.


Then yesterday afternoon I discovered a really wonderful new thing I can do in the back yard.  I can dig holes!  I found a nice spot in a corner by the shed, and I just had the best time digging.  But then Mom saw me, and she made me stop.  She said I couldn't dig there because that's where the day lilies are sleeping, and it's too early to wake them up.  Heck, I thought I was helping by getting the yucky old leaves and dirt off the flowers.  But apparently Mom didn't see it that way.

Darn!  Maybe this new home isn't going to be as interesting as I thought it was.  I guess I'll just have to wait and see.