Friday, July 20, 2012

Fly Swatter

Foxy is a very obedient dog except for two conditions. One reason for her disobedience is those blimey squirrels (mentioned in a couple of earlier entries) and the other is with flies. If she sees one flying around, she loses track of whatever she is doing and decides that she must catch them and eat them. I don’t know if she seems them as smaller versions of squirrels. Regardless, if she’s in the middle of following a command and one of our fair flying friends floats by, I know for sure she’s not paying attention to a word I’m saying.

Just like squirrels, Foxy has yet to catch a fly. I’ve seen her try to bite them as they fly by. She’s swatted at one with her tail while it was propped up on a wall. She’s also tried to smash it with her paw. Each time, she’s failed. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before she catches one. I expect that some day soon she’ll come up to me with either a squirrel between her teeth or she’ll pop a fly out of her mouth to show me her catch.

Until then, I’ll enjoy watching her try at play with her two nemeses. I wonder if she’ll stop trying to catch them if she ever does grab hold of one?

I wrote the 3 paragraphs above last summer. Things have changed since then. Foxy has in fact caught a fly in her mouth, only to spit it out a millisecond later. Having finally succeeded at capturing a fly, it did nothing to stop her from continuing to try to catch them. If one of those pests is anywhere near her, she will try any of her myriad methods to obtain them - tail splatter, paw squash, mid-air nibble. I don't think she will ever stop trying to catch them but it's fine with me. Her enthusiasm reminds me that deep inside she's still a puppy and enjoys playing.

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