Kalvin vs. Opossum

[Pufferpunk]

Possum... 0. Kal was outside barking at midnight. Figured I better take a flashlight & see what got him so excited. An opposum almost as large as Kalvin, with very pointy, long teeth was hissing at him from on top of the fence & Kal was jumping at it. The vibration of his jumping must have knocked the possum into our yard. It was dead within seconds. It's throat was gashed & blood was pouring out. I just saw the wild beast side of a dog I don't recognize at all! This is the same dog I cuddle with all night long. At least the creature didn't suffer.

Now he wants a cookie...

[diverchic]

It's always a bit strange to see our cuddly, furry companions show the side of them that they inherited from their long-ago wild ancestors. They still have traces of that wolf/wild dog/big cat inside them.

Of course he wanted a cookie, in his eyes he defended his pack from the interloper and once it was done the domestic side wanted his reward

[pufferpuggirl]

Possums can carry rabies, so I hope your Kal is up on his vaccinations. Do you know that possum have the most teeth of any mammal? They are nasty little critters, but only doing what any animal does when threatened. My dogs chased after them many a night when I lived in Florida, but I always discouraged them from going after it for fear they would be hurt. We had one play dead and darn if it didn't look dead too, I even gave it a poke with a stick, but I noticed just a very small movement of the tongue that told me it wasn't dead at all, and that's when I got the dog's back into the house and within a few moments, it was gone.

[Flutter]

LOL. Of course he did.

He was bred to kill. That's what they do.

That's why so many people use them as barn dogs and I've seen several videos where they're used as exterminators in the UK.

[Nick]

Killing rodents is an automatic function for them. They're one of the few breeds of dog recent enough that they are still well bred to do what they do and relatively free of health problems. My aunt's Jack Russels had never done much other than sit on an array of dog beds their entire lives (oddly lazy little dogs for JRs) but one day a mouse darted across the floor and it was raggled, killed, and tossed against the wall in under a second. After doing it, the dog walked over and sniffed the mouse trying to figure out what had happened. I don't even think she realized what she was doing when she killed it, just smelled that rodent smell, saw it move, and acted.

[Pufferpunk]

Well, it looks like it was just playing "possum". It's gone this morning. All that's left is a bunch of fur & a puddle of blood. Kal really poked at it hard with his nose to see if it would move, too. Smartest thing it could have done! I still had trouble getting Kal away from it.

Possums can carry rabies, so I hope your Kal is up on his vaccinations.

1st thing I was thinking too. His vaccinations are all up to date. Thing looked nice & plump too, not sickly.

[Nick]

Perhaps it was carried off by something else as food?

[Iliveinazoo]

I love Jack Russells, I had a Jack Russell Terrier as a kid and he was a lovely dog, but a born killer. As soon as he was old enough he cleared the mice that used to live in the base of my dad's shed and only god knows how many birds he caught, he used to pluck them out of the air!

I now have 2 spaniels, they'll chase anything that moves... but run away from anything that turns around

[L!$A]

haha! this is a pretty funny story.
What a good little protector!

Reminds me of when one of my English Mastiff puppies, named Lily got sprayed by a skunk...
Now that was NOT pleasant!!!

[DRRT]

give him to cookie and post more cute pics!

[Pufferpunk]

I've got plenty of cute pics of "Killer".

Racingdog:






Bikerdog:




Flowerdog:



Puppydog;





Tireddog:

[LilGreenPuffer]

I think one of the flowerdog pictures needs to be resized...

Normally, I really despise dog clothes, but I have to say that those goggles are rather cute!

[Pufferpunk]

I just removed that one--no time to resize. He had the Doggles to protect his eyes from flying bugs, dirt, etc. but he quickly figured out how to remove them & never wears them anymore. Lulu wore them for years.

[LilGreenPuffer]

It's so annoying when animals figure out how to get stuff off. We can't get our cats to wear collars - they always get them off within a few days.

[pufferpuggirl]

He's a very cute little dog, they always have that "alert" look about them.