Bird Dog

Yesterday my dog killed a bird.  I know some dogs are hunters, but my dog isn't.  She's more of a barker.  Or a lie-arounder.  But, for some reason, yesterday she found her killer instinct.

It's finally gotten nice outside.  Summer finally feels like summer.  And, as such, I make the dog stay out all day.  The rest of the year, as I sweep the kitchen floor or vacuum the family room, she follows behind me, shedding.  Negating the work that I'm doing as I'm doing it.  But when I clean in the summer I get a full 2 minutes to enjoy the clean-ness before my kids undo it all.  However, this summer, until this week, at least, it's been rainy and muddy and I haven't been able to leave my dog outside for hours at a time.

But this week the dog has been able to spend her days lounging under the patio set.  We have a bit of a bird sanctuary in our backyard and this surprises me since we also have a 50 lb. black lab.  But the kids made birdhouses for Father's Day and I bought a bird bath earlier this spring.  We've had a bird feeder out back for years, but this summer I can't seem to keep enough bird seed in it (and it's not squirrels...they have never been able to get into the feeder we have).  So, ten feet from where the dog is half passed out in the shade, birds are flying.  Everywhere.  Robins and cardinals.  Sparrows and mourning doves.  Little black and white birds.  Chubby browns ones.

So yesterday, as the kids were playing, the birds were flitting, and the dog was lounging, I heard a scuffle and the the kids started yelling.  They yell a lot, so this wasn't anything that grabbed my attention right away, but then I realized they were yelling "Bad dog!  You're a bad dog!  Stop it, bad dog!"  Either the dog was quick enough or the bird was slow enough (my guess is the latter), but somehow there was a bird in Sadie's mouth.  My yelling children were able to get Sadie to drop the bird by the time I got to them, but the poor little thing was scared to death and hopped into a bush.  I put the dog in the house and we kept an eye on it for a while, and eventually I swear I saw it fly out.  I really thought it had recovered from it's paralyzing fear and flown away.  We checked underneath the bush and didn't see it anywhere.  I let the dog back out.


Sadie ran over to the bush and sniffed around a bit and then walked away.  I turned to the kids and said "See, the little birdie wasn't hurt after all.  It was just scared and now it's gone."  The second that I finished my little pep talk there was another scuffle.  And a dead bird on the patio.  I looked at the kids and said, "I'll get the shovel."