Some of you may remember Rose, my border collie at the first Bedlam Farm. She chased a squirrel up a Maple Tree and even though we never saw the squirrel again, she waited every morning for him to return.
I called him the Imaginary Squirrel and many people followed her dogged pursuit of this long-gone creature.
Bud has decided to channel Rose.
He chased a chipmunk up this tree a couple of weeks ago, but like Rose, he rushes out to the tree every morning and watches for his squirrel, sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for hours.
So we have an Imaginary Chipmunk with a new dog. Working dogs are all a little bit crazy. I’ll keep on it.
On nice summer evenings my Airedale, Heidi, is in the backyard from about 5:30 until 10:00. One evening at about 8:00 I nearly had a heart attack at the barking, howling and screaming coming from the yard. I go to the door and Heidi is jumping up at the wall of the house and running back and forth between the back door and the side gate. I go outside, look up and there’s a young squirrel running up and down the stucco! I managed to grab Heidi’s collar and make her sit and after a couple of minutes the squirrel ran to the far end of the house, came down the stucco and escaped under the gate. Heidi’s eyes were huge, she was vibrating and her tongue was nearly dragging on the ground. Full-on prey drive! I don’t imagine the squirrel will make that mistake again. A friend of mine said the squirrel has probably warned his buddies that Godzilla the Dog lives in that house….. ?
Wonderful photo!
I think you could have named him Winson. “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in ….” He actually looks a bit like Churchill
My dogs are getting older…they sit and watch the squirrels and chipmunks scamper up the trees to the bird feeder, usually about 4 feet from where they are lounging in the yard. Only if the furry little creatures dare venture close to the outside water bowl do either of them gets ruffled. But my lab/Dane mix will sit on ‘woodchuck watch’ – waiting for that little youngster to pop his head through the bottom of the fence. He will quiver when that happens and finally shoot out after him. But those back legs are letting him down, the speed isn’t there even though the desire to catch the chuck is. His personal record was 12 in a year (someone should have warned the other chucks!). I feel his pain — we all do. But they are a constant source of entertainment, especially since the smaller one has been my new 4-legged co-worker these past few months…
Every year I purchase two or three calendars with natural settings. You and Maria take such lovely photo’s, it would be wonderful to see them in a calendar.
Not for me, thanks..I don’t want to be doing a stationary store..