manrymission.com

Yesterday, Gabe ran in frantically from outside. “Blaze caught a mouse and he won’t let it go and it’s squeaking and I can’t catch him!” By the time I arrived outside plastic bag in hand, the mouse was dead. I scooped it up and threw it away before Blaze could eat it. Gabe was very upset and I calmly explained to him that dogs didn’t always have dog food, they had to hunt for their food. Blaze is born with the hunting instinct and if he can catch a small mammal or bird, he will kill it. Abby piped up with a lament for the “poor mouse”, and I informed her that the kitten she is getting tomorrow will hunt and kill mice as well. Being a Manry kitten, she may be called upon to kill a snake also. Years ago, in a tale that can only be true in Dale’s family, someone found a water moccasin (I believe) in the dresser. Not knowing what to do, they shut the door to the room and waited until Dale’s Daddy came home. Unknown to them, their small kitten was locked in the room with the snake. When Dale’s Daddy came home, he opened the door and the kitten walked proudly out. She had killed the snake. She was a true Manry pet. After years of living with Fruhliche, Czar and Sasha, I had become a bit numb to all the small animals they killed. However, there was one day when I was truly mortified. On a walk, Czar and Sasha had observed a fluffy white pet bunny that neighbors down the street allowed to hop around their yard inside a 3 foot high fence. They both lunged for it, but I was able to drag them off. I put them in the back yard, behind a 6 foot high wooden fence and then went to the store. As usual, I had greatly underestimated them. Sasha, being the brains of the operation, had Czar tear the fence boards off the posts so that they could get out. I returned to find them gone and the fence in tatters. I was standing in the driveway trying to calculate in which direction I should go look for them when they came trotting down the sidewalk with the dead fluffy white pet bunny dangling from Sasha’s mouth. I stared in horror. In my dog training classes, they had never taught the subject: “What to do when your dog kills a neighbor’s bunny.” This morning, as Blaze and I were periodically walking and not walking, a lazy fat wild rabbit bigger than Blaze hopped across our path. Blaze looked at it and I knew what he was thinking…”Just wait until I get bigger. When she’s not watching, you’re dinner.”