Mr. Cottontail

Warning! This post contains small animal death with photos. You’ve been warned.

So, the other morning we had quite the adrenaline rush in the coonhound house. I have a fully fenced (6 foot) backyard. The squirrels tend to love all the trees but of course, they come and go and sit up high to torture poor Daisy with their swishy tails. Since I am accustomed to this type of security I never think twice about just opening the door to let the girls out. Well, somehow the other morning a bunny had found its way into my backyard during the night. I opened the door…it saw us, and we saw it just about the same time. I helplessly yelled “Giiiirrrllls!!! Nnnnooooo!!” As they took off running in hot pursuit. I grabbed the pile of leashes at the door but of course, it was too late. In my mind I knew no matter what, the bunny was trapped and I wouldn’t be quick enough to save it. Bella caught in in under 30 yards. The girl is FAST. The bunny didn’t suffer.

Why share this story? Well, it’s more because of how differently my dogs reacted to the bunny in the backyard. Bella has the killer instinct. She is the only one who has ever caught any prey animal. However, if you would see her in the yard she isn’t focused on the squirrels like Daisy. She likes to relax and lay in the sun. However, put a headlamp on and leash her up and she thinks it is time to hunt! Daisy, from the untrained eye, would see more “huntress”. She’s not. She is a show pony! It is all yell and no action. With the bunny, she took off chasing and yelling but it was more the love of her own voice I think, rather than the thrill of the hunt, that got her going. Once the bunny wasn’t moving, she lost interest quite quickly.

My raw feeding friends said I should have froze the bunny so Bella could have had it later. I decided to continue the circle of life instead. I walked down to our roost of vultures and left dear Peter under a tree for them. Of course, in true mother pride I took a photo of Bella’s prize for posterity’s sake.

Happy Easter Everyone!

 

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4 Comments

  1. Our Angel Nina was the only one of our dogs (so far) to catch and kill multiple rabbits in our yard. We have a chain link fence around an acre and the stupid rabbits will squeeze between the holes in the fence to get in. We try to keep chicken wire on the lower portion of the fence to hinder their entry, but it is an ongoing battle to keep the chicken wire in place. Oh yeah…Nina also managed to catch and kill a squirrel that was too dumb to climb the nearest tree and tried to squeeze through the fence instead.
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  2. Oh, yes. On more than one occassion, I’ve had the opportunity to yell at full volume, “Run, Bunny, run!!” Shiloh gives chase with full Beagle voice but doesn’t catch. The ones in my yard ended up like yours – but eaten. A pending post about my new stealth Beagle coming up….keep tuned!
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  3. Bella must be very fast to catch a bunny!

    Aladdin will chase city pigeons, but never as a hunter just as a runner. We had mice in our place in the fall, and we couldn’t even couldn’t get him to intimidate them by chasing them out of the house. We still love him though. 😛
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  4. What a good little hunter Bella is. Kelsey has gotten pretty good at hunting lizards and sometimes flies. When I was younger we had a foxhound mix who was pretty good at catching the possums. Our other dog has managed to catch birds (no clue how she can do that). Loved the comparison of your girls though.

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