Dogs? Good for Nothing?

Well, I think she is good for ONE thing, and there it is...



...she makes Robyn happy. Other than that, useless. I mean, what do you get a dog for anyway?

Protection maybe? Yeah, our dog is the size of a rat. Even if she decided to bite someone (which she wouldn't do—she would go hide under the bed), then someone could kick her from here to next week.

I personally would like a dog to clear my yard of rodentia.

Oh, if you are an animal lover, you should stop reading here. However if you don't count garden-eating, hole-digging, disease-carrying vermin as animals, then feel free to continue. Okay, back to rodentia...

I realize this is more of a cat's job, but since Moxy is the size of a cat, I don't see why she can't fill the shoes (or paws, I guess). Just today I saw a vole running around the yard. I hate the stupid voles and they have been burrowing under the snow during the winter and now that the snow has melted you can see a literal maze of pathways in our yard. Stupid voles!

So I tossed the dog out the back door hoping she would do something useful. Moxy proceeded to curl up on the step in the sun. Stupid dog!

So I went outside myself and Moxy dutifully followed. I flipped over a chair and there was the blasted vole. "Get it!! Moxy! Look! Mouse! Fetch! Anything!" I yelled, prodding her with my foot. Yep, the dog rolled over on her back (practically on top of the vole) to have her tummy scratched.

The vole, not much smarter than the dog, moved a few inches away and sat there. I tried again to get Moxy to take some interest in seizing the pest, but I couldn't get her back on her feet. I was holding Daisy this whole time, so it was a bit difficult trying to maneuver the stubborn dog (oh, and I was on the phone with Tyler too, who was telling me to just smash the thing with a shovel, but as much as I hate the things, I can't splatter their guts with my bare hands). I finally wiggled my hand under the dog and picked her up. I put her nose right on top of the still-sitting-there-stupidly vole and low and behold, Moxy attacked, grabbing it in her mouth.

For two seconds I thought, 'Wow, my dog has instincts and everything. Look at her go, I should probably avert my eyes from the carnage.' And then Moxy dropped the rodent and turned away as if to say, "Ew, I just grabbed that thing in my mouth, and hello, it was still ALIVE!" Turns out she is not the predator that she didn't appear to be in the first place. I mean check out that vicious beast.



However, I think her one bite did a number on the vole, because it didn't move much after that, so I scooped it into a jar to make sure it didn't crawl back into some hole (and to save it in case Tyler felt like practicing his shovel smashing later on).