on wednesday i took mollie walking through the soccer field bordered by the corn fields. as we headed into the field, i saw some deer up ahead. mollie doesn’t chase the deer anymore because i don’t think she can see them so well, plus she’s accepted the fact that she can’t catch them. but for some reason she headed off our path and right out into the muddy cornfield.
i started yelling at her, and mollie is pretty deaf now, but i know she could hear me because i was bellowing at the top of my lungs. the deer were long gone, but she trotted right out to the middle of the field and started vigorously gnawing on something. uh oh…it was obviously a dead something and she clearly planned to stay there and enjoy every delicious morsel.
i kept yelling, she kept eating, and i didn’t feel like standing there all day, plus i was sure that whatever it was, she didn’t need the extra calories. so i grudgingly slogged through the mud out into the field.
it was just the pelt of a pretty big something with a pretty long tail. later, when i described it to kevin, he said it was probably a possum. i guess that’s what it was, but i didn’t recall possums having such long fur, but it’s not like i encounter them face to face a lot. anyway, mollie was wildly tearing at the fur and WHY DOES SHE WANT TO EAT FUR? i tried to reason with her, but then she stuffed as much of the pelt into her mouth and dashed away. it was so funny, and i wish i’d gotten a picture of her because her mouth was just crammed with this big mound of fur plus there was lots more hanging out.
we got back onto the path and she started tearing into it again. here’s what it looked like by then.
and here’s mollie, hard at work.
she was on the leash again, and i had to step on the dead animal’s tail so that mollie couldn’t pick it up again. we finally got far enough away so i could let her free…and she ran into yet another field, and found yet another dead something, but this time i decided she could stand out there all day if she wanted to. it must not have been such a tasty morsel because she eventually ran back to me, and we had a good walk the rest of the way.
on the way back, of course, i had to leash her up and drag her past the pelt again.
the next day, the pelt was still in the middle of our path – i had assumed some other animal would have eaten it, but apparently mollie has a very refined and specialized palate, and is the only one who craves the pelt and fur. luckily i had her on the leash so we didn’t have to linger.
but then, the next day she took a shortcut into the cornfield because she’d found yet another animal, and once again i had to trudge after her. this time it was a big bone with marrow still inside. more gnawing, more coercing her back onto the path, but she wouldn’t budge til she’d scarfed it all down.
so even though mollie is getting exercise on her walks, it’s very good for her, it’s also mollie treat time.
on other fronts…most of my presents are wrapped, i’ve made one kind of xmas cookie, and i am going to attempt to bake many more today. this time last year my freezer was already filled with cookies, but i just haven’t had the time, and now it is definitely RUNNING OUT.
so here i go…
ok then,
mrs. holiday hughes.