CRAZY DOGS!!

[Sondra]

We have 2 dogs plus a foster we are going to adopt after her surgery. We have a bull mastiff and a black mouth cur (these are raised to hunt wild hogs). Our Cur decided to hone his hunting skills (which he's never done) and proudly brought his "trophy" in and deposited it on the rug, a dead young rabbit.  We bagged it up and buried the poor thing. This was Friday, Saturday he decides to go after something BIGGER, he brings us a LIVE wood chuck..................yes, a LIVE wood chuck............into our HOUSE!!!!!      Now we have TWO dogs going after this poor thing, it runs out the dog door and we end up literally fighting the dogs trying to get it away from them. If it had just been the cur we would have been fine, we can call him off and hold him, but NOOOOOOOOOO, the mastiff has to put her 2 cents in and all hell broke loose. Imagine 2 grown people rolling on the ground TRYING to hold onto two blood crazed dogs AND capture a scared chuck..........not pretty, not pretty at all. In between being literally dragged across the yard, by both dogs, through mud, poop, flowers, dogs falling on you, snapping at you, hubs being bit by the chuck............ Ended up walking off to the neighbors and all I could get out was HELP!!!! and CHUCK!!!  Thank goodness he was home and that he had no fear of our cur, he got him into the house without being bit or snapped at (this dog won't let men grab him unless we are there), then he muscled the Mastiff into the house.  By this time hubs has not only been bit at least twice more by mister chuck and has several broken ribs, but we are exhausted, have poop on us, blood on us (from both dogs and the chuck & hubs), and we can barely walk. Thanks just didn't seem appropriate, but it was all we could offer - gonna get him a gift card. So today both of us can barely move & I haven't gone out to check the yard for animals, not that it does any good as I did that yesterday & 4 hours later this chuck decided to visit.  Oh, yeah, we couldn't save the chuck.     I just hope there are no more casualties today, or any other day for that matter. He doesn't bother the deer when they hop the fence (he has been by himself, no mastiff) and he doesn't bother the ducks if they visit.  Going to just take it easy until I have to work Monday night, ice and heat are going to be my companions until then. Oh yeah, the foster dog, she was the only smart one..........she sat quite a ways away and just watched as the craziness flowed throughout the yard, if things got too close she RAN to another vantage point, sat and observed.  Thank goodness for THAT as she only weighs 15 whole pounds and would most likely gotten hurt real bad if she decided to join in on the melee.

[Sapphire]

Sondra, sounds like you and hubby had an awful time with this situation  You were both very brave! A Bull Mastiff and a Cur are not the sort of dogs I would like to be wrestling with 

Thank goodness your neighbour was there to help out! Both of your injuries could have been much worse if you hadn't managed to call on him!

I hope you both recover very soon 

[Pinkbirdy]

Holy cow !!!! Never a dull moment ! Now Id be racing to see what he might have when he comes back from outside  Good thing your husband was there.

[Sondra]

we are more sore today than yesterday.     Before the dogs go out in the morning for their tinkles I walk the yard. I discovered a nest of baby bunnies living under the garage next door, so will have to watch the back part of the yard really well as those suckers can hide under a leaf! Our Mastiff was moving slow yesterday, that was the most exercise she's had in a few months, plus she is 5, so that's the low end of old age for them.     We can't blame the dogs, they were doing what comes natural to them, but it doesn't make it any easier that an animal had to die - especially like that.   

Our Cur was so proud when he brought that rabbit in he actually was prancing all the way in.  He was proud of the chuck too, standing there head held high, as it ran behind our pellet stove. That's when the fun began in the house.  I'm just thankful our little foster girl didn't get involved as she would have gotten hurt really badly and she already is scheduled for orthopedic surgery Wed, the third.

This just topped off a bad month and a half, my Angel (ferret) died of old age @ 15, then the other day our Keet died @ 16. I told hubby death comes in threes and we had to watch the chuck die. I don't count the rabbit as we didn't see it die..............fingers crossed.

[Nakia]

Sondra I am just reading this about your ordeal with your dogs & the woodchuck. In a way I'm sure it was a funny situation to watch the "Dog Rodeo" as a spectator.  I know it was not a laughing matter & sorry the chuck did die. 

Hunter dogs are always determined to find & get their prey animal no matter what we do to avoid it.  I have two dogs out of my 9 that are hunters. My oldest standard, my black female poodle Nakia is a hunter deluxe! She finds every cottontail she can in the yard. The silly rabbits have a whole lake of fields, unfenced yards & pasture lands all around us, but they still insist on trying to raise their babies in our fenced in dog saturated front & back yard!!!!  She has brought baby bunnies in through the dog door too thinking she could eat it in the comfort of the house. 

Now Ozzie my sheepadoodle lives in the back yard for the most part. He loves being outside more than inside as he runs all over his big back yard all day long & barks at everything all night long.  So I feed him daily in Jerry's workshop that also serves as his "doghouse". And this past month he had not been eating his dog food but about once a week. He wasn't getting skinny & was definitely not sick, so I suspected he was catching his food. Yep that is exactly what he does when he can.  I was going out the other day to feed him, opened the back door & he had what was left of a cottontail rabbit right in front of the door.  He grabbed it & ran off with it, so I know now that when he doesn't eat he is getting his food on the hoof! 

[Nakia]

Sorry to hear about your ferret dying. 

I had a female ferret named Angel back in the late 1980s. She was a sweet funny girl. Always stealing Jerry's cigarettes & lighters. (He smoked back then. Not anymore, so no worries with our birds!)  Or the dog's toys & hiding them.

So sorry to hear about your parakeet too.  Hope that is all for now. You certainly have had a bad run of luck & disasters this year. 

[Sondra]

   they caught another chuck, poor thing. So far we are lucky, no more chucks, no rabbits.