Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 9:16 am Post subject: Mouse In The House
Sitting at my desk on Monday and all of a sudden a little mouse popped out from behind a photo frame, being the wimp that I am, I promptly did a runner! Hubbie was home, and after an extensive search, no mouse was to be found.
1am this morning Lottie starts barking and so up hubbie gets to investigate. The short version of the story is that despite the cats best efforts, Lottie finds the mouse (a tiny baby) and (according to hubbie) it was last seen with just a little bit of tail sticking out of her mouth as she took it out in the garden. I have found a little bit of chewed remains on the lawn this morning, however as the cat & our Lhasa Apso had both followed Lottie out, I can't be sure who ate the rest.
My reason for posting this is that I am amazed at the fact Lottie caught the mouse. She has become a (mostly) wonderful dog to own, however when God was giving out brains, she would appear to have been at the end of the queue. However I have often wondered, if in fact, she is a lot more intelligent than we think, so much so, that she has mastered the art of acting 'thick' to get away with any little misdemeanors.
I have always said that the dogs who often appear the stupidest are often the cleverest - they have the brains to act stupid so they are never asked to do anything!! I speak from experience of our last lab Seamus, who mastered both the arts of acting stupid and selective hearing
Lottie sounds like the first Guide Dog, Oyster, I puppy walked. We used to call her Marilyn Monroe as she was blonde and beautiful, but definitely not the sharpest tool in the shed. Oyster did, however, learn, just at a much slower rate than my other dogs.
It took a while, but eventually she cottoned on that when one of my cats appeared, making his "I've got you a mouse, Mum" noise, he was carrying a tasty morsel, which, if she was quick enough, she could eat. After that I saw many a mouse's tail hanging out of the corner of her mouth, swiftly followed by Oyster gulping, before I had a chance to say "Leave It". At least it was a quick way for the poor mice to go, I suppose .
If that mouse was a baby, mum and dad are still about somewhere along with goodness knows how many siblings
Lottie eating the mouse is just her natural instincts coming out, if she were in the wild thats what she`d be doing, oppurtunist feeding, even though she gets regular meals as a pet
It has occurred to me that little 'Micky' will have family somewhere. We have had the carpet up for decorating, so hubbie thinks he may have squeezed through a gap at the edge of the floor boards. The carpet is back down now so I just hope there's no nibbling rodents trying to break in.
Have just come back from my walk and for the first time ever Lottie has come back to me when called away from another dog. She is fine with recall unless distracted (which happens easily), but she becomes totally deaf when she sees another dog to play with. Unfortunately she then reverted backwards when she a spotted a hunky looking black Lab boy on the other side of the park. It does seem that she is starting to have the odd 'light bulb' moment though, so fingers crossed we are getting there with her training.
I'm glad to hear that Lottie is not the only Lab who's a little slow on the uptake. I was beginning to think I'd got the only dim Lab in the world.
Can I borrow her? I was lying in bed a few nights ago and heard that awful nibbling/scurrying sound. It looks like we are going to have an annual invasion in our cavity wall/roofspace as this happened last year too. Some poison traps were thrown up there the following day and hopefully we will hear them no more. Fortunately we have never seen them actually inside the house so I hope their invasion is restricted to the cavity and roofspace.
I know Labs' "act" dumb !! ,but in actual fact they are very calculating.....
The proof.....a couple of years ago,my previous Lab Benji,sauntered into a village bread shop,promptly emptied his very full bladder up against the bread counter,and sauntered straight back out again !!! That's a pretty "dumb" thing to do !!!....but it was also very calculating,because the shop assistant got in such a rage that she chucked a very large piece of french stick at him !!!(honest !!).....which is exactly what he wanted all along !!! He gobbled it up,which p***ed off the assistant even more !! I might add,...I didn't actually "see" him pee in the shop.I only heard the screams,followed by a chunk of bread flying across the pavement at him!!!
ME ??? Oh,I pretended he wasn't my dog. Problem was he followed me all the way back to my car...with his tale held high and looking very satisfied with himself !! (one up on the "intelligent" humans!!)
I loved,and still love Benji very much...R I P special boy
____________ Lots of labby licks,Julian and Kenko
"The loneliness of deception" Chimpanzee study 2011
Oh they are not daft are they. They just know how to act it - a bit like children really.
I love the story about Benji, Julian. What a clever boy he must have been. I take it though, that you did not get into the habit of sending him to the bakers for your daily bread.
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Mouse In The House
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Problem was he followed me all the way back to my car...with his tale held high and looking very satisfied with himself !! 
