The jaws of death
Anyone familiar with my terrier mutt, Ripley, knows him as an uncommonly needy dog, one apparently so smitten with the very idea of attention that he'll debase himself to any level just to get so much as a scratch behind the ear.
He is also a murderer of mammals great and small. His scalps include a skunk, a possum, a squirrel, at least two rabbits, and, over the snowy holiday in northwest Arkansas, three rodents in two days. This plump field mouse Ripley flushed out of a snowed-over patch of flowers, only after pawing through ice and chomping through branches to follow his nose.
Death comes cold and swift in a mouser dog's jaws. And it's worth remembering, when this cute little dog tries to lick you on the mouth, that his lips would just as soon be curled around stiffening rat hide.
Comments
"stiffening rat hide" I love the way you write, Sam.
Ripley, I hope you have many kisses...Your cousin mutt; Newly, recently discovered she was 15 pounds at the jaws of 40 # Catahoula. She survived because her Mom is a steady shot. I am certain if I had not killed the dog; I might have discovered I was adopted. It is directly attached to the Eifling gene to be a skilled marksman. Happy 2010 Sam and Ripley! Hooray for the instincts of our animals and ourselves. Why could humans not be more like tenacious terriers?
I love the shadow on this picture. Did you know your dog had a mustache? hehehe