Daisy 1, Squirrel 0 and Dave understands feelings

This week I'm in sunny California for work (don't hate the player) and Dave is staying at my house and watching the Daisy Dog. (More on letting him (or anyone really) stay at my house alone in another blog.) In earlier blogs, I have mentioned that I have had the Daisy Dog for about a year now. In fact, November will mark 2 years, which sadly is longer than most of my relationships. (Yet ANOTHER subject for a future blog.) In the time that Daisy has been at my house she has been tormented by the squirrels in my back yard. They also tormented my beloved Roxy, my previous dog before Daisy. Anyway, Daisy has tried, with no luck, to catch one of these mothers for the past year and a half every time she goes out to the back yard or on a walk through the 'hood. I even help her out with this by luring them into the yard with my bird feeders that are always full of yummy seed. I also have Indian corn out there to entice the critters to come into the yard.


Now, before you go all PETA on me, I have no expectation of my dog EVER catching one of these furry little bastards, I just figure I'm making the squirrel work for its food and I'm giving Daisy her cardio for the week. But, that all changed this week while Dave was in command. As mentioned, Dave is watching Daisy while I'm away. I left him pretty basic notes on her care; how much to feed her, her potty schedule, treats, how to put the leash/harness combo on her (while she's going APESHIT because she's going for a WALK). I honestly can't believe that I didn't have a book written of ALL THINGS DAISY for him since I spoil her so much, I guess I just got lazy.


So, yesterday I get a somewhat frantic call from Dave, regarding my policy on letting my dog KILL things. I think his EXACT words to me were 'Do you let her kill things?' and I'm like "What? Of course I don't let her KILL things!! What the heck are you talking about?" He tells me that while she was outside he all of a sudden heard this screeching kind of noise. When he got out there to see what was going on, Daisy had a squirrel in her mouth and she was shaking it like a rag doll!! OK, so I would have flipped out if it was me, but hearing Dave tell me this story nearly made me run my car off the road! All I could picture was my big bad Daisy tearing this squirrel to shreds while Dave stood there in horror. I WISH I would have installed a web cam before I left. Again, no PETA comments on this one, I'm the most animal (dog) friendly person around and I don't encourage the death of any animal, but there is some kind of sweet revenge in all of this. I bet Roxy is up in Doggie Heaven doing a little victory dance for the Daize-meister.


Back to Death Grip One, Dave ran out and yelled at Daisy to drop the squirrel, which of course she didn't, so he ended up grabbing her by the collar and make her drop the rodent. Any dog owners out there know that Daisy immediately chased after the squirrel, who stupidly did not run for his life and out of the yard, and grabbed him back up again. Dave yelled at her again and then ordered her back into the house, sans squirrel. Now what comes next is what upsets me and then makes me laugh myself almost off the highway. He YELLED at my precious pooch! Poor Daisy, she probably thought she was showing Dave what a great huntress she was and now she's being yelled at. Of course her feelings were hurt and she sat there with her head lowered and those sad doggie eyes staring at him. This was the mad part on my behalf. The part that makes me laugh is what Dave says next. I think it went something like this.


"I've never experienced emotions from a dog before. I actually saw her hurt feelings when I yelled at her." If you only knew Dave like I do, you would understand that this is a man that repeatedly makes fun of how much I care about my dog, so to hear him say he saw an "emotion" from my dog, nearly caused me to laugh my ass off. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Where did the Dave that makes fun of me and my pooch on a regular basis? After one day he's all of a sudden becoming a dog person and understanding emotions. Hmmmm... I can't wait to see what the rest of the week unveils......

Stay tuned.