Faithful readers know all about Belle by now. Our cute little princess of a dog that is super sweet. And cuddly. And charming. And really very special. She’s just a neat little dog.
And boy is she ever fast. She loves nothing more than running around the yard, playing with Meg and chasing critters.
She spends most of her day laying at the kitchen door, watching the many birds and squirrels that frequent our yard. She sits, waiting patiently, watching. She lives for the moment when I emerge from what has started to feel like my cave of hibernation (aka “office”) and open the door for her. That’s when the fun really begins. When all the little critters scatter in fear as Belle flies around the yard.
Today, something different happened.
Today our little princess caught a squirrel.
I’ll warn you now, the squirrel did not survive the encounter. In this picture, it is actually still alive. Barely.
And when Meg went to investigate, it grabbed her. She yelped. I was laughing hysterically, of course, and didn’t manage to capture that particular Kodak moment.
Belle promptly grabbed the squirrel and shook the rest of the life out of it.
She was quite proud of her squirrel. She was prancing all around the yard, head held high. It was pretty funny. Until I realized, that is, that I was going to have to get the thing away from her.
She was really prancing. Just look at her.
I called Hubby, gave him the scoop. I was thinking he might have some ideas on what to do.
First, he said, “Don’t let her take it in the house.”
He followed that bit of wisdom with, “You are taking pictures, right?”
I’m sure glad I called him.
Lucky for me, I do have a brain. Sometimes I even use it. I just grabbed a plastic grocery bag, grabbed Belle, and managed to get the bag around the squirrel.
That’s when things got a bit gross. She didn’t want to let it go. So I had to really grip the thing to make her let it go.
Ew, ew, ew!
There was a bag around it. But still.
She was not happy about giving up her new toy. And I was stuck with a dead squirrel in a grocery bag. What to do? Set it aside until later, of course.
The top of the gas grill seemed like a safe spot.
Apparently Belle has a brain, too. And a nose.
Turns out that wasn’t such a great spot after all.
Are you thinking, “At least the grill wasn’t on?”
Unfortunately, it was. I’d used it to cook dinner the night before and had forgotten to turn it off.
At least the squirrel wasn’t all cold and stiff when I went and retrieved him half an hour later. That’s the bright side.
I’m still left with a dead squirrel in a grocery bag, though.
Know any good recipes for squirrel? No hurry. He’s safely ensconced in the freezer for now. Just let me know when you have found a good recipe or two.
This is just too funny. Mike sounds like a wonderful advisor – I bet you lean on him for support all the time!
I’ve never cooked squirrel myself, but I’ll ask around. I doubt my cookbooks are exotic enough to cover this.
Oh! A hunting dog. That was kinda of funny but gross.
Now how do we get rid of a squirrel besides cooking it.
Oh! I know. After putting in bag, open garbage can lid and Plop it in there. Am I a genius or what?
Mom
Hey, my Mom has a brain, too!
I don’t know. . .I think cold, stiff squirrel woulda been better than hurried-by-the-still-warm-grill decomposing squirrel. Ick!
Another suggestion for the squirrel. You could have him/her stuff and make yourself a trophy room for Belle to stare at her first catch and keep her busy figuring out how she get the dang thing off the wall.
Mom