2024, animals, home, pets, Uncategorized

A Great Day for Westies

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Earlier this week, my son texted me to say that he was home with our grandson, who had a sore throat, and had just cleaned up after his West Highland Terrier, who had brought a very large, very dead, cottontail rabbit into the house. The dog caught it in the backyard. Our son put it in a garbage bag and threw it in the trash can outside.

This is the second kill Baxter, the terrier, has under his belt. Last year he caught and shook to death a squirrel at my son’s in-law’s house. Baxter is a senior dog, about 10 years old. He is in good physical condition, but I am surprised he was fast enough to catch a rabbit. He was pretty dirty when he came in with the bunny, so Son had to give him a bath. Son is very grateful Baxter didn’t try to eat the rabbit. In true terrier fashion, shaking something until it is dead is reward enough. Had he chewed on it, Baxter would have needed medicine for tapeworms.

Our Cesky Terrier has great hopes of catching and shaking one of the rabbits that infest our neighborhood. His favorite pastime when we sit in the living room is to play tug of war with some of his floppy dog toys and then shake them violently when he gets them from us. No rabbit would have a chance. I am happy he hasn’t brought anything dead into the house. Many years ago one of our cats caught a bird and brought it, still living, into the house. it looked as though someone had been plucking chickens in the dining room before we were able to get the bird away from the cat and release it out of doors.

When was the last time nature invaded your home?

40 thoughts on “A Great Day for Westies”

  2. Oh, we carry leaves in on our shoes, and dirt if Husband has been in the garden – I’d prefer he have a dedicated pair of gardening shoes like I do.

    There are ants, centipedes (mostly basement), spiders of course… But since we have no four-leggeds, we don’t get the occasional surprise that you who have them do.

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  3. Every autumn we get a half-dozen or so wasps in the house–not sure where they’re getting in, there are so many gaps and holes in the old place. I have not seen a mouse yet this year, but I’m sure they’re somewhere, probably the basement not that our landlady’s cat is getting old and can’t patrol the way he used to. Spiders, we got spiders year-round. And centipedes (ish da!). And silverfish, which are Hana’s favorite treat.

    I had a dog growing up (a Boston Terrier of decided opinions) but adopted a big black cat while I was in college. Zappa (he came with the name) liked to go outside to contemplate nature and have a nice roll in the dirt. Gentle as he was, though, he managed to catch a pair of voles in the bushes outside the back door. He was very proud and it took some convincing with a bag of treats to get him to leave his prizes outside. Saoirse has caught a couple of mice in our current place–I suspect she may have eaten part of one, but my roommate won’t say. The rest of the cats seem to be lovers rather than hunters; I can’t count the number of bugs Keanu has allowed to escape because he was more interested in watching them run around. If he manages to kill one it’s because he put his giant paw down on top of it and accidentally crushed it.

    –Crow Girl

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  4. We still get a few Japanese beetles crawling on our south-side windows each winter. I flipped a few off my office window into the wild blue yonder just the other day. Used to have LOTS of them, but their numbers declined each year as more houses were built on what used to be corn/soybean fields just across the road from us.

    My wife is fearful of ants, spiders, centipedes, anything that crawls on the floor basically, so she signed us up with a pest control company that supposedly bug proofs the exterior 4 times a year. Hard to imagine what they do that’s effective in winter though.

    Chris in Owatonna

    **BSP** Northfield, MN. 5-9 pm. The Armory, 6th and Division St., downtown. It’s the annual Winter Walk. A big deal in Northfield. Not only will I be at the Armory with 30+ other one of a kind vendors of arts, crafts, and food items, but all of downtown will be open for shopping, dining, drinking, strolling, music, and other some outdoor activities, although I can’t imagine who’ll want to be outside longer than a few minutes tonight.

    So stop inside the Armory, buy a cocktail, browse all the vendors, and purchase some unique, memorable gifts for those on your shopping list. **END BSP**

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  5. I have plenty of boxelder bugs and ladybugs. I can’t figure out how they get in, but they do. I usually just put them back outside, but some of them look pretty desiccated and at the end of their road, so they just end up getting flushed.

    I had a white-footed mouse a few years ago. The vacant lot just north of my building was torn up and apartment buildings were constructed. Prior to its destruction, the large lot had native plants and trees, two ponds, a trail winding through, and plenty of wildlife. There were rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels, eagles, owls, ducks and geese. I noticed goldfinches and other seed loving birds there. After the lot was destroyed for the apartment buildings, the critters needed new homes. I saw a white-footed mouse smashed on the parking lot of nearby Cub foods. Then I noticed tiny tracks in the fresh snow outside my garage. I was feeding birds on my deck. It’s forbidden here, but I keep the feeder right outside my patio door, up one level from the driveway. Of course some of the seeds end up down on the driveway, attracting mice. I don’t mind if they stay outside, and this little field mouse had itself a small tunnel under the edge of a piece of Kasota stone I have. I could see where it was entering its little lair. I didn’t set any traps until I noticed the telltale little black turds in the garage, near the big door. I didn’t want to trap the poor little thing that had simply been trying to find a new home, but I don’t want mice in my house either. It took a few days, but I did get him. It was sad. I know they all say, ‘where there’s one, there’s more.’ I haven’t seen any sign of any others since. I would be in trouble if I fed birds illegally and caused a mouse infestation, so I do look for signs.

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  6. Baxter is ten and has two kills under his belt? Guinevere turns ten in January and she is WAY into double digits. To be fair, in the winter, our fenced backyard is hard for the rabbits. They get in leisurely and then in their panic, can’t find their way back out with snow and ice covering a lot of their normal escape routes. She never chews on them; in fact she seems mystified when they stop moving. After all, it’s all about the chase with her!

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  8. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    The most surprising “nature encounter” in the house happened at the camp in N. Minnesota where I lived for two years. One day in the spring or summer, we heard an enormous crash in the guest bedroom. I kept that door shut because we did not heat that room unless there was a guest. I slowly opened that door and peaked in to witness carnage. Glass and blood spatter was everywhere, and there wobbling on the foot of the bed, was a dazed grouse. It had mistaken the window for free space and broken it during flight. I was going to grab the bird while it was dazed and take it outside, but it recovered from the crash (but surely it had a head injury), and flew back outside on its own, leaving me with a real mess.

    There have also been half eaten gophers, rodents, and dead baby rabbits splayed about various houses, depending on the pet of the moment. The squirrel in the fire place was an entire adventure lasting weeks. I did not enjoy chasing the still living, but somewhat chewed on, chipmunk around my bedroom. Grizzly. Bootsy, the Corgi mix dog before our Phoebe, was a master rodent killer who kept the yard free of moles. Good girl! She was lightening fast and deadly, digging them up and snapping their necks before they ever knew what happened. Bootsy was such a quiet dog that seeing her do this was a welcome surprise.

    OT: The adjusted laundry area is now re-built and plastered. The carpenter was here for 10 minutes this morning to check on the drying progress and will return tomorrow to paint, then install the laundry. It will cost me, but what else was there to do? There are smaller units that are one piece, but their reliability is low, so I did not want one of those. Sigh.

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  11. We had a dog about 25 years ago, he was real good at catching rats as I emptied out the corn crib. Humphrey these days still always ready to take on a raccoon and he’ll be 10 in January

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  12. Last night around midnight I heard a ruckus outside. It was Husband and Kyrill, our Cesky Terrier, chasing a big cottontail, in the back yard. Husband was up having a snack and let the dog out. The dog saw the rabbit from the deck, so Husband put on his slippers and joined the dog in the chase.

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  13. We’ve always had at least one cat in the family, so I have all the usual stories of being presented with a mouse (alive or dead) while in bed. But three other incidents stand out.

    The first was when the kids were little. We got home from some kind of event one evening in late June. The kids noticed a garter snake in one of the window wells. Husband said he’d take care of it in the morning. The next morning, as I came down the steps from the bedroom to make coffee, I was greeted by the sight of Mr. Snake in the kitchen. We lived in a split-level and the time, and the snake had somehow gotten into the house and up two levels to the kitchen. I froze and suggested to Husband that it would be a good time to “take care of” the snake. A frantic scene followed, of Husband with brooms, tongs, etc., attempting to get the thing outside.

    One of our cats brought a live chipmunk into the house. Husband let her in the back patio door without checking to make sure didn’t have anything (big mistake). I was at work when this happened, but Husband kept me informed by text as he closed off rooms, moved large pieces of furniture, opened the front and back doors, and rushed around attempting to persuade the chipmunk to leave. He finally succeeded and a lesson was learned.

    A couple of years ago, we were visited by a tiny tree frog who usually spends his summer hiding on our second-floor deck. He usually likes to hang out in flower pots and watering cans, but one evening, when we had left the deck door open for the cat, the little frog ventured inside. We very gently coaxed him back outside before he could come to any harm.

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  14. We’ve always had at least one cat in the family, so I have all the usual stories of being presented with a mouse (alive or dead) while in bed. But three other incidents stand out.

    The first was when the kids were little. We got home from some kind of event one evening in late June. The kids noticed a garter snake in one of the window wells. Husband said he’d take care of it in the morning. The next morning, as I came down the steps from the bedroom to make coffee, I was greeted by the sight of Mr. Snake in the kitchen. We lived in a split-level and the time, and the snake had somehow gotten into the house and up two levels to the kitchen. I froze and suggested to Husband that it would be a good time to “take care of” the snake. A frantic scene followed, of Husband with brooms, tongs, etc., attempting to get the thing outside.

    One of our cats brought a live chipmunk into the house. Husband let her in the back patio door without checking to make sure didn’t have anything (big mistake). I was at work when this happened, but Husband kept me informed by text as he closed off rooms, moved large pieces of furniture, opened the front and back doors, and rushed around attempting to persuade the chipmunk to leave. He finally succeeded and a lesson was learned.

    A couple of years ago, we were visited by a tiny tree frog who usually spends his summer hiding on our second-floor deck. He usually likes to hang out in flower pots and watering cans, but one evening, when we had left the deck door open for the cat, the little frog ventured inside. We very gently coaxed him back outside before he could come to any harm.

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  15. Forty-some-odd years ago I lived in a beautiful old mansion a few blocks from our current house. At the time I had two cats: Monshka a young feisty calico, and Caruso, a stoic old Siamese. Monshka would routinely present me with dead mice, sometimes to or three at a time, lined up on the welcome mat when I came home from work. I’d praise her profusely, and dispose of her catch. One day I came home and Caruso came to greet me with a dead bat in his mouth. Guess he wanted to be sure Monshka didn’t get the credit; either that or he wanted to show me that he was useful too.

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  16. Once I had a bee in the house, and the sibling kittens that were new residents at the time had to investigate. After the encounter, one kitten had a lopsided face, having been stung in the cheek, and the other had one grotequely swollen paw. I don’t think the bee fared well. The kittens seemed quite unfazed, though it must have hurt to get stung.

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