Digging for Mole Gold

Life with dogs is certainly never boring. I've lived with cats and fish and lizards, still live with birds, but there's just something about dogs and a natural comedic sense they have about themselves. They're childlike in their view of the world, playful and happy, easily entertained and they gobble up love like candy. And they graciously return that love a thousand fold. I just can't get enough of dogs. My dogs, God love 'em, are a spoiled and ridiculous bunch of clowns. I wouldn't trade them for the world.

Yesterday's great dog adventure was mole hunting for Pea in the backyard. She used her incredible Basset sense of smell to track down this voracious menace cleverly hidden in a underground tunnel beneath a rock in what used to be my flower bed. I could hear her excited barking and looked out to see her tearing up the ground like she was digging for Yukon gold. I sent Tucker out to see what she was up to--like he's a great help. He commenced bouncing around Sweet Pea, obviously enticed by her excitement over the hunt, barking his encouragement to Dig Pea, Dig!!! Brilliant. Pea wasn't sure that she liked him being so close to her potential prize and occasionally looked up to snarl and charge the bouncing Tucker. He found this intensely amusing and only bounced and barked all the more eagerly. Is it any wonder my husband calls them 'The Idiots'? Well earned, their nickname.

Half the yard dug to mud later, Pea had grasped her precious mole-but now what? She would pick it up ever so tenderly, like a mother with her newborn pup, only to quickly toss the squirming vermin away, hopefully unlike a mother with a newborn pup...Tucker was still in Tigger mode, bouncing and barking in mad circles, hoping for his own turn at this new Toss-a-Mole game. Pea was not sharing. You try to teach them manners, but they go off into the world of their own accord...what's a mother to do?

I took pity on this poor, petrified little mole, trying to scamper away from the slobbery Pea and bouncing bonkers Tucker. Who turned the lights on anyway?? I scooped him up in a fallen leaf and tossed him over the fence to safety. He probably squirmed his way back to the same shallow tunnel that gave him away, but maybe he learned to dig a little deeper. Moles can't be very bright. Sweet Pea is anything but stealthy in her hunting techniques, nor is she super fast. If half an hour of mad barking and ground shaking digging aren't warning enough to go find another branch of tunnel to hide in, I don't hold out much hope for the survival of that little mole. Kinda makes my dogs 'idiotness' not seem so bad in comparison...kinda.

Let me help!

I think I see him!

You can't have my mole!

Ruby, during all the great hunting excitement

Tucker with his reading, er, shredding material

Gorgeous baby boy