Something in the yard

[Bekah]

Let Liddy out this morning and she started barking right away and not in her normal bark. I went out and saw her approaching something furry on the ground. I yelled "NO!" and by a miracle she backed off. It turned out to be a headless rabbit carcuss and a few feet away was all its innards. Something had chewed off the rabbit's head and torn it apart. Yuck!!

There were a few seconds where I was afraid Liddy had been the murderer, but I'm sure it wasn't her because she hasn't been out much the past couple days due to the heat. My mom and I removed it and called animal control who told us a great horned owl may have been the killer.

Now Liddy is acting very proud of herself for having made the discovery. Her tail is wagging and she keeps looking at me as if to say, "Did I do good?" I'm just glad she isn't a killer.

[kayharley]

How sad nature can be. I would have been upset too if I found that poor rabbit. I'm Liddy would have made friends with it.

I freaked out when Elliott came up on the decka few weeks ago with a dead chipmunk in his mouth. He had the same attitude...."Ain't I cool."

[Eliz222]

I'm glad Liddy stopped when you said too! Scout was rolling in a dead mouse the other day....why do they have to act like dogs so much??? LOL!

[Guest girliejr]

I'm impressed Liddy stopped when you told her too also! I'm sure Jack would be rolling in it (if not eating it!) the second he laid eyes on it! I can't be so sure that Jack would have "stopped" when told!

[Guest sandy's mom]

Oh, I'm sure Sandy would have been gobbling it up! Good for Liddy!!

[caesar22]

That is what they are bred for. Killing vermon. If you take that away from them then you take away the Cairn name. They just become another dog. Start treating your Cairn like a Cairn and if they bring you something dead then reward them and give them praise. The next thing I am going to read here is that someone has worked out the natural killing instinct and start crying when they see a mouse and their Cairn is too scared to kill it. Does anyone here ever go to the Earth Day trials?

[kayharley]

I believe we're all aware of what Cairns were bred to do and no one in this forum would ever want to take away any part of that trait but I think most of us are animal lovers at heart...I know I am. Although there was a part of me that was proud of Elliott's accomplishment, the other part of me saw this chipmunk as one of God's creatures....I'm also a huge Chip and Dale fan!

Needless to say I've never been a hunter nor lived with one.

[Bekah]

Caesar, I think you misunderstood. I wouldn't have been mad at Liddy if she had killed the rabbit, I realize that's her nature. But knowing that she didn't kill the rabbit, made me worry that there was something lurking in our yard that did. There have been coyote sightings in our area recently and I wouldn't want Liddy to come face-to-face with one of those.

I praised Liddy for finding the rabbit and alerting me about it. She's done this before when she found a baby bird that had fallen out of its nest. I guess Liddy just doesn't have that "killer" instinct (though there are a number of bugs and worms who beg to differ).

My mom talked to our neighbor and she said her cat (a Maine Coon who's name, ironically, is Caesar) probably killed the rabbit.