Jack in his element

Tags

chipmunks, hunting, Jack, postaday2014

We have adored all of our dogs; Marshall our Black Lab, the Mayor of Blandford, Rex are most amazing German Shepard, Tuck our misunderstood Beagle who we adored and now Jack our little baby boy. What is very interesting is that out of all of our dogs, Jack is the only one who is a successful hunter. He treats our backyard as his private hunting grounds, he goes on safari on a daily basis.

His little face is so adorable and yet he has the heart of a killer. I have laughingly called him “murderer” on occasion. He is seriously persistent when he has a scent in his nose, he doesn’t let up at all.

In this series of pictures, Jack had picked up a scent underneath that old statue in the middle of my rosebushes and he was relentless. He spent a good deal of time circling around the statue, scratching at the base hot on a trail. I can only imagine how, whatever was hiding underneath the statue was feeling, on the other hand, I have seen how nonchalantly the chipmunks walk around this place so maybe they weren’t all that frightened or stressed. It does get a little annoying how they do lord it over the place eating my bulbs and buds.

It is the nature after all and Jack’s breed was designed to hunt all kinds of critters, I just never expected him to be so good at it given he has such a lazy nature in the house. 😀

The last of my tulips, thanks a lot chipmunks

Tags

chipmunks, postaday2014, tulips

My chipmunks have taken over my front and back yards; I used to have bunches of tulips all throughout my front yard and at one point I had planted over fifty tulip bulbs in front of the stonewall a few autumns ago and only one bloomed the following spring. I was livid that spring and then when the chipmunks realized that they had eaten practically all of the tulips, they went after my poppies; the little druggies; grabbing my poppy buds and ferreting them back down to their lair. How Dare They. 😦

As of last year I still had a pretty bunch of white tulips in the back, but just yesterday I saw the greenery, but no bulb sprouting from within the leaves so I don’t know. I am hoping that when I get back home from New York on sunday, I’ll have a surprise waiting for me in the back yard; some white tulips.

The suicidal chipmunks

Tags

chipmunks, postaday2012, saving drowning animals, swimming pool

This is swimming season and I know that because this morning Rex, our German Shepard, went for his first swim in our swimming pool. I didn’t see him myself but his entire backside was wet when I let him in from the back at 10 a.m and there is only one way that could have happened, swimming! It sure wasn’t raining this morning, hooray, I say this only because it has been wet here in Blandford for weeks now, so any day filled with sun is very much appreciated. Jack, the little Jack Russell, hasn’t tried to go swimming as of yet. He has sniffed at the water but so far that is it. I fished out my first suicidal chipmunk and it won’t be the last. I never understood why the chipmunks and mice jump into the pool, it’s full of chlorine and once you are in, you can’t get out. One day last year, it was in the morning, I walked down to the pool and lo and behold, there were two mice swimming round and round the pool. I immediately got the net to rescue them, I successfully fished one out and released him by the compost pile, the other rescue didn’t go quite as smoothly. When I fished him out he ran up the handle of the net towards my arm and I panicked at the thought of a wet mouse crawling on my arm and with the net, my immediate impulse was to lob the mouse out and over the fence. Oops, on my part, I hope that the poor little guy had a safe landing. What I am wondering now, is what will Jack, our valiant little chipmunk hunter, do when, not if, he comes across a swimming chipmunk? Is he going to chase the chipmunk by barking at it running around the perimeter of the pool? Will he say Geranimo and jump into the pool to catch the chipmunk? Only time will tell, but for now, every day is check the filter day for the unlucky chipmunk or mouse.

Jack lost and found

Tags

chipmunks, dog, escape, Jack Russel, leash, postaday2012

Just a few days ago, I wrote about what I wish my little Jack would understand completely; either complete house training or to never run away if off leash. Today as it so happens, when we got back home from being at my mother’s overnight, both Rex and Jack were overjoyed at seeing us and I immediately took both of them for a nice walk in the park next to our house. When we got back it was time for their dinner which they both devoured. Meanwhile, the car was being unpacked, the garage door was open and in the midst of all of us putting things away, going in and out of the garage, the dogs were settled in the living room where my hubby and I eventually sat down to enjoy some t.v. At one point, my hubby got up to go to the kitchen and he noticed that the side door leading the the garage was open. I know this because my hubby called out to me and I couldn’t understand what he was saying so I got up to see what he was talking about. The words that I couldn’t decipher were “is Jack with you?”. That is when I kicked into action because our little wily Jack Russell knows how to open the screen door to the garage which was open to the driveway. Excellent opportunity for the little scamp to escape. Which he did, the problem was we weren’t sure exactly how long Jack had been gone for. It could have been five minutes or twenty minutes, I got his leash and with a sinking stomach went to go look for our baby. There is traffic on our road and I don’t know how savvy Jack would be crossing the road or if he would cross the road at all. I got out of the house and started to walk down the driveway and out of the corner of my eye I see a tail wagging near our front wall. I walk over to the wagging tail and ask Jack “are you looking for chipmunks Jack?” the tail starts wagging even faster and I put the leash on. We get into the house and my hubby picks up Jack praising him for hunting chipmunk and coming home with Maman. Actually it was my hubby who planted the chipmunk hunting idea in Jack’s mind, so Jack was only following his Papa’s direction. I was so relieved finding our little Jack, he has been a gift to us and to Rex. I am also heartened by the fact that Jack wasn’t interested in leaving our property,he was intent on hunting within our parameters. Who knows, maybe the communication with Jack is working?