I Am Thankful For My Dogs

I've never been so thankful for my dogs than I am right now; these three fierce protectors, these mice scare-ers, rat chasers, chipmunk corner-ers, squirrel haters. I know for a fact that a mouse might try to make a nest in our laundry room, pretty cushy digs with the furnace blasting hot air and the dog food bag left open, but for our three dogs.

It begins with the barking, so much more barking than usual. It continues with the youngest and smallest dog taking a running leap onto the couch to hide under the shelter of my husbands arms. Then the middle sized dog must position herself on the couch so she can stare intently, nonstop staring, in the direction of the kitchen. And that cycle of steps will continue for quite awhile until I stand in the kitchen and watch the dogs and realize they are on point. They think something is in the laundry room.

So I will call my husband, who will give it a look see, encouraging the girls to "get it" but they won't be able to "get it". He will give up and I will take over, moving bags of charcoal, beach shovels, and the like, and I will see the girls stick their heads into a corner and I will look in that corner and see a nest like thing.

At which point my husband will come back and tell me it's not just a nest like thing, it is a nest, complete with some mouse poop. I will then move far away, and stand there ready with a baseball bat, and watch the girls run in and out of the laundry room, noses to the ground.

And after all of that, when my husband cleans the mouse nest out and says it was fairly new and with all the rain we've had and the slight flooding everywhere, he thinks it was a mouse who had to move his home to higher ground. There will be no evidence of a mouse anywhere else and after watching the girls sniff around the cleaned out corner then return to their sedate, sleepy, night time routine, I will sit in the living room, with my feet tucked up under me, and be so thankful I have three dogs who are born to chase small creatures.

Our house is overrun with dogs and teenagers, but not a single mouse, rat, chipmunk or squirrel is allowed to stay here. Thank you, Emma and Sarah Beagle and Olive Badger!