She is a real killer.
Literally.
On Friday my oldest son ran in from the backyard yelling, "Mom! I think Rosebud KILLED something!"
I said, "What do you mean she killed something?"
He replied, "There's BLOOD mom, BLOOD!" (This got the attention of his sister and younger brother as well as myself)
We all went outside and sure enough, there it was...a small pocket gopher, covered in blood and still alive (barely). My first thought was, "Oh, how gross! I think I'm going to get sick!" followed by empathy for the poor thing struggling to breathe. I looked over at my almost 6 year old daughter to see how she was doing. She is THE official animal lover in the family along with my husband, who unfortunately was at work. I said to my daughter, "How you doing sweetie?" She said she was sad and felt bad for the pocket gopher.
Poor, innocent, pocket gopher holding on to his life by a thin thread.
This is where I have to interject that my husband disagrees with me completely on this point. He argues that the pocket gopher got what was coming to it and that Rosebud was only doing what she was designed to do, which is hunt and dig and chase down these creatures. My husband is quick to point out that the "poor, innocent pocket gopher" has torn up our yard on multiple occasions, done considerable damage to our grass and are generally a big nuisance. Let me also say that my husband has tried for the better part of TWO years to kill the pocket gopher problem in our yard with no luck.
He's tried: flushing them out with the hose (futile because they have miles of tunnels under the ground), smoking them out (did not phase them a bit) and poisoning them (nothing happened and it probably tasted like candy to them). My husband even threatened to borrow a gun and "blast them away!"
NOTHING WORKED.
Until our 4 pound miniature yorkie got a hold of one.
To say my husband was proud of her would be a huge understatement.
So, we let the pocket gopher die in peace. At least that is what I am telling myself. Truth be told I really was not up for putting the gopher out of its misery.
I must say I do feel a bit safer with a killer dog at our house. Plus, I have not seen a pocket gopher since.