Stalker Dog

Our dog has finally figured out the the mailman comes bearing more than the mail. He also (usually) has dog treats. Now whenever I take Kirby out for our after lunch walk, he scouts around for the mailman. He knows that our particular mailman parks his truck around the corner from our house. So the first thing we have to do is check it out to see if the mailman is still in the truck. Sometimes we can catch him there eating his lunch. Other times he is taking a break, perhaps listening to a little of the Cardinals game. So Kirby gets up in his hind legs and bounces along like a dancing dog to see if he can spy the mailman. If that doesn't pan out, he carefully looks up and down the street, searching for the blue uniform carrying a bag. If Kirby sees him, he pulls me down the street like a sled dog until we catch up. The gagging noise coming from his throat alerts the mailman that stalker dog is hot on his tail. It is a game we play every day. The mailman seems to get a kick out of him, maybe since Kirby never barks at him or tries to bite him, and he always takes the dog treat very politely.

Yesterday after he scored a biscuit from the mailman, we continued on our walk. As we worked our way back to the house, Kirby spotted a second mail truck. Oh how I wish I could have taken a picture to capture the look of disbelief on his face! Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! I got my speed walking in for a second time that day. This time he was rewarded with a beef flavored treat and he certainly savored it.

Later in the evening he found an even bigger treat in the backyard. Somehow he captured a smaller bunny, which he proudly brought up to the back door to show me. He seems somewhat like a cat that way. No amount of cajoling would convince him to drop the rabbit, which was dead fortunately. I imagine that the neighbor's cat or one of the local owls killed it because Kirby is not fast enough to catch a bunny. We had to practice our distract and ignore maneuvers until he finally let it go long enough for Jim to bag it and throw it away. You know, we are always chasing the rabbits out of our yard so that they don't destroy our gardens. Kirby probably thought he was helping us out. Yuck!