Busy, busy morning. And the last thing I had to do is haul water. I’ve been collecting more and better receptacles for that, especially since at some point soon I need to do laundry, which takes lots of water, and so I came back to J&H’s with my trailer. The boys were in the Jeep, and Skeeter the Pomeranian from Heck ran yapping over to tell Little Bear he’d better not get out of line, boy…
Most of that is hair.
After a heavy meal, Skeeter might possibly weigh as much as both of Little Bear’s ears. But that’s his yard, by golly, and interlopers had better remember it.
LB seems amused, when he condescends to notice at all. Ghost never even looks up.
The little ones are usually fun to watch. My sister has five Chihuahuas. All together they would not weigh as much as Little Bear’s ears, trust me. Watch dogs? Pretty fair, if all you want is noise and bluster. The really hysterical part is watching her try to walk all five at the same time. I get the giggles every time I think of it.
It is so low down to the ground – can it be trained to sneak up on and stomp on rodents? Kind of a mobile rat and mouse trap. Even a fluffy, cute Pomeranian needs a purpose in life.
” Kind of a mobile rat and mouse trap.” Isn’t that what cats are for? And they are a whole lot quieter and less needy than Pomeranians.
I had lots of barn cats over the years. They do a fair job if they are kept hungry, but most are not that dedicated to actually killing many rodents. If you want a rat and mouse killing machine, get a mini dachshund. They like to kill the things, and do so quickly and neatly. They’re pretty much a pain in the ass otherwise, unfortunately. But I still miss mine. 🙂
I may try that out for my next dog. LB has a passion for rabbits, but neither he nor Ghost will usually notice a rat and never a mouse. And when they notice a rat all hell breaks loose and there’s property damage and they never catch the rat.
And I don’t want any more cats. They’re only about halfway up the food chain, though most don’t seem to notice until the jaws close, and they like to catch mice and then bring them inside, which is sort of an inversion of the whole idea.
Part of that is the difference between barn cats and “pets.” My cats were never treated as pets, and never came in the house. We also had plenty of coyotes and even bobcats around there, but the total population of the cats never varied by much. The “yotes” got a few here and there… the smart cats survived. The problem comes when you are trying to count on a house cat and there’s only one of them… natural selection eventually catches up, even in an urban setting.
The dachshund is not immune to natural selection, of course, and would have to be a house dog at least part of the time, but the rat/mouse killing has nothing to do with his whims or appetite… it is bred to kill such rodents, and they will contine to do so vigorously even if fed. Dogs can also be trained, where cats really can’t be controlled outside of a cage.
Two words… Rat Terrier.
When they are “switched on” they are pound for pound the meanest, blood thirsty, most vicious animals I have ever met. If my German Shepard had teeth on the same scale it would look like the velociraptors from Jurassic Park! Thank God they top out about 25lbs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Terrier#History
The last one I had died of liver cancer when he was 16. The week before though he ran down a large fox squirrel (squirrel had a 30 yard head start to the tree), crushed its spine with his paws, then tore it apart by shaking it.
He was named “Spike” and lived up to it.
There was a verion bread for a larger size (Decker Giants) that were in the 35-40lb range, and they used them to run down deer!
If you want a dedicated rat dog, look no further