OLLIE

I have a new email friend, "d", who lives out on the west coast and has four beautiful cavaliers, one of each color. How cool is that! She sent me a great little story recently that I would like to share ........hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
e


An interesting story today. We live in a canyon area surrounded by unpopulated hillsides in the northern part of Los Angeles County. Up until this year there were very few wild furry creatures around. There was, however, a large population of coyotes that roamed the area in packs keeping rodents and the like at bay. We could hear howling at night and often saw them roaming the streets just before dawn. With the ever increasing housing developments sprouting up, those coyotes have completely disappeared. Now we have an invasion of jack rabbits, tree rats, raccoons, and opossums. All four Cavs seem quite brave with their barking and noses to the ground, but once confronted with creatures face to face they run for their lives. Jackson and Cooper bark from the door, Savannah will venture out to the yard gates, but little Ollie (Holly's black and tan) takes off for the far reaches of our yard and flushes out four footed invaders. This morning there was more noise than usual. I was at work, but my husband had to call me and recount the story. Ollie cornered the granddaddy of rats. He had it in his mouth shaking it wildly and was headed for the house when Bruce said "leave it". Being the well trained pup he is, he dropped it at Bruce's feet. It didn't move. Bruce touched it with his foot. Since it didn't move and thinking it was dead he picked it up by the 3 foot tail. Suddenly it started twitching and jerking all over the place. It was playing dead, we think. Anyway, Ollie was so proud of himself prancing around. Bruce took it to the trash can with all four dogs now trailing in a single line toward the trash cans feeling brave and adventurous now that the invader was corralled. I guess it is still in that trash can. I am afraid to look!! The exterminator comes tomorrow to do the dirty work. YUCH!!! So much for city life. I think it will be awhile before I let Ollie lick me on the face. Yeah, maybe five more minutes.
d