Chronicle of a death foretold

[ksmith]

Gaby got the chipmunk.

I pulled into the driveway, then let the pups out to do pup things as I unloaded Kuro. I had lugged my stuff into the house and garaged Kuro, then walked out to check the raised bed when I spotted Gaby with a head sticking out of her mouth. I thought it was a frog at first because all I could see was pale underside of a throat and a U-shaped mouth. Then she dropped it and I realized what it was. Seeing as she and the old guy were inside all day, someone must have been feeling a little too self-confident and wandered too far from shelter.

Gaby dropped it when I told her to, and I disposed of it outside the fence. I confess to feeling a little upset. I don't care much about the squirrels and I actively dislike the mice, but we hadn't had chips around here for a few years because of the influx of coyotes and feral cats, and I like them. Yeah, I know, prey drive and all that. Nature red in tooth and claw, and little faces that look like Benji.

Comments

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

Pip, Scourge of Nature, stands in the garden waiting for the fledgling blackbirds to flutter by at nose height. With predictable results. Unlike Gaby, he refuses to drop prey on command. I caught it, I'm keeping it. You catch your own.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I've had trouble getting mice away from Gaby in the past. Maybe something in the tone of my voice this time caught her attention.