Welcome to Shiba...What?

I chose that name because that was probably the first thing I said when I heard about the breed. And, I get that quite often when I have the girls out and they meet new people. Most people have never heard of the breed, although we do occasionally run into someone who actually knows what they are! I do know one thing and that is Shiba owners love to see other Shibas and read about other Shibas. I recently came across I Am Shiba and within a few days, read the whole blog. Many times I found myself laughing so hard I was on the verge of tears. LOL While not every dog is the same, there are enough similarities. Through this blog, I would love to share how I came to have these two beautiful girls, what we have been though and what we are up to. Occasionally even the girls will add their input, they can be very opinionated you know.


Saturday, August 28, 2010

Mole number 2!

Now that Sami has caught her first mole, they now know what they are all about.  They are so anxious to get to that spot in the park, that they literally drag me there.  The day after Sami caught the mole, we were down in mole central and both Sami and Miko saw the ground move and immediately they pounced on it.  They were both digging and sniffing, sticking their noses into the tunnels and breathing in so deeply that I was sure they would inhale dirt.  Well as hard as they were working to get the mole, I knew they would come up with nothing.  For while they were busily working away, I saw the ground moving a couple feet away, slowing moving farther away.  The mole wins this time.

The next night, the mole wasn't so lucky.  Before I knew what was going on, I heard a squeak and there was Sami with another mole!  The head and front feet sticking out of one side of her mouth and one foot and the behind sticking out of the other side.  Don't worry, the other foot was inside her mouth.  This one was much more lively and was squirming around.  You could tell Sami was so proud of herself.

So proud in fact that she did not want to give this one up.  I kept telling her to drop it and she would start shivering.  It made me feel bad.  So now I'm trying to figure out what to do, she was not going to drop this one.  So, we continued our walk around the park area and I was hoping that I would find someone on the next street to help me out.  We finally get back on the road and Sami is just prancing down the street with mole in mouth.

It was just my luck that Bob was sitting in his garage cleaning up his motorcycle and I asked him if he could help me out.  He really got a kick out of Sami.  A few years back, Bob had a Beagle that loved to go to the park and hunt moles.  It brought back memories for him.  He told her a few times to drop it, but that wasn't happening.  Bob was a little concerned that if he tried to take it from her, she might bite him.  I assured him that she would not do that.  She has never even acted like she would bite anyone.  She's the attention seeker and goes to anyone for some attention.  So, he gets a pair of work gloves out of the garage and with a little work, was able to extract the mole from her mouth.

Now the story gets a little ugly.  Bob does not like moles, especially since they can be very destructive to your yard.  He and his wife spend many hours in their yard, they just did some nice landscaping and planted lots of new plants.  So, Bob did the mole in and disposed of it.  I didn't particularly care for how it ended, I would have preferred to see the mole released back to the park, but since he did help me out, I didn't complain.

So, I looked around and found  my garden gloves and plan on taking them with us on walks in case Sami or Miko catch another one.

Two is more fun then one.

Monday, August 23, 2010

EWWWWWWWEEE Yuck! Or.....Sami gets the prize

I guess it all depends on who is looking at it.  This morning we went for our usual walk.  We go down into the park area more since we found the stolen items there.  We have had a rash of thefts in the area that is escalating and everyone in the neighborhood is on high alert.

There is one area of the park in particular that seems to have a lot of mole activity and Sami and Miko love to sniff around there.  Well, Miko was sniffing at this one area and Sami rushed over there to see what was going on.  They were sniffing and sniffing and sniffing.  Then in the blink of an eye, BAM!!!!, Sami plucked a nice plump mole right out of its tunnel!

I of course was freaking out, trying to get her to drop it.  She was not going to give up her prize that easily.  I was not wanting to try and open her mouth to get her to drop it.  Finally after telling her numerous times to drop it, she finally let go of her prize and I pulled both dogs away.  It just laid there, so I'm not sure if she hurt it or if it was just playing dead.  Just goes to show how strong their natural instinct to hunt is, no training required!  And because of that, I did tell her what a good girl she was, we just weren't going to take it home with us.  LOL

Two are more fun then one.