Things have gone to the dogs...
Puppies are like toddlers and teenagers and addicts all rolled into one furry bundle of slobber, cuteness and tail wag.
Let me tell you the
A little background first.
Bunny is our dog. Puppy really. 65 pounds of boxer mutt muscle mix. Generally adorable, slightly twisted and pretty high energy. She loves cheese, dirty underwear, used tissues, birds, dismembering action figures and Barbie dolls, burying bones, sniffing and lying belly side up. Oh, and she is ridiculously cute.
She also sometimes forgets where she lives in the pack order. Myself, Chicklet and The Mr. have been working hard to establish where in the pack order she is, but sometimes she forgets. Her head is roughly the size of a large cantaloupe and I believe her brain to be about the size of a single seed inside that melon. Sometimes even smaller.
Bunny sometimes has a hard time getting across to us her desire to go outside. Sometimes we are ignoring her. Usually that comes after she has already spent more of her day outside than in and it's after dark. Even with a fence, I don't love having her roaming around in the yard in the dark.
Last night she had some forgetfulness regarding her place in the pack. We three Alpha's set about reminding her of her place. She doesn't particularly enjoy this special time together and most of us have the scratches and bruises to show from it.
We reset pack order and she slept for a while. Then Bunny lost her mind again. She started body bumping me to get my attention.
"Ok, ok, I get it. I'll let you out."
We went to the door, made her sit, opened it and she took off like a rocket.
Uh oh.
Uh oh is the understatement.
Before the fence went up this summer we were plagued with a family of rabbits living under our back deck. Pretty much after the first day of dog in fence the rabbit family was gone. We would see them on the other side of the fence and we are learning not to dig the fence line, but until last night, no silly rabbits had ventured back under the gate.
If you don't know the sound a rabbit makes when it fears for it's life, count yourself lucky.
Now, here is where you find out why a rabbit's foot is lucky or where my dog is really good or maybe just really stupid.
It seems in Little Rabbit Foot's terror, he forgot that there is only one gate in the yard he can squeeze under. In his desperation to not become a midnight snack at 11:30 for Bunny, he ran full on into the fence trying to get under. Head goes under, fluffy white bunny tail stays on the inside of the fence.
Rabbit screaming is constant now.
Chicklet and I are running around like a late night comedy sketch trying to get shoes and sweatshirts and flash lights. Where is the leash? Get some cheese!!
Bunny is bumping Rabbit's tail end with her nose.
Rabbit Foot pulls out and dashes away to another part of the fence. Same scene, new location. I'm not sure if we did that two or three times.
The Rabbit screams make you confused.
I have the leash, but I'm standing behind Chicklet. We are both calling Bunny and she has zero interest in obeying, even for cheese. I am saying don't get too close, we don't know how Bunny will react if we rush her and try to grab her while it seems like she is in hunt mode.
The Rabbit screaming is making us mental.
Chicklet is calling and throwing cheese at Bunny. Bunny is still nudging Rabbit in the butt. I am quiet and coming up along side with the leash. I walked up real slow, rubbed her head and grabbed her collar. On with the leash and the Alpha dragging begins.
Bunny really didn't want to leave Rabbit under the fence edge. The Rabbit screaming that was making Chicklet and I crazy was like a playtime call to her. Once we were a few feet away, no issues. She just came on her leash, took some cheese and went into her kennel with no problems. She did bark in protest for a little while, but that was it.
Chicklet and I returned to the yard to see about that Rabbit. It was still half under the fence. We decided to unlock and open the gate, with the idea of chasing it out. The Rabbit, it seems, is even less smart than the dog. It ran back and forth in the yard before disappearing. We suspect it went under the deck.
I hoped this morning Bunny would have amnesia and not remember a single thing about last night.
Wrong.
She canvassed the yard with her nose. She sniffed it so long and hard she gave herself the hiccups.
Today Bunny has alternated from scouring the yard for any and all signs of her new playmate Rabbit, to deep exhausted puppy sleep complete with running after Rabbit dreams.
I'd say Rabbit must have had at least one lucky foot on him, and I for one am glad. That would have been one dog-gone nasty mess to clean up!
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