lucy's big day

there's been a lot of debate over the past three years as to what kind of dog lucy actually is. we usually answer "mutt" but opinions are like, well, a**holes, and everyone's got one. we've heard dalmatian (huh?), entlebucher, swiss mountain dog, beagle and pitbull. more than likely, she's a combo of the latter two, beagle & pit.

no one denies that her body is shaped more like a pitbull than a beagle. add her shape to her muscles and gait and you'd think that pitbull was more dominant in her than beagle. however, watch her hunt something down (tennis ball, rabbit, squirrel, buried bone) and you quickly notice that her body may be pitbull but her mind is mostly beagle.

which brings us to today.

we have a small family of baby squirrels living in a tree on the side of our house. there are three or four babies and we see them roaming the front yard for food off and on all day. this morning i looked out the window and a huge black crow was trying to carry off one of the babies. i ran outside yelling at the crow who, in turn, flew up to the wires above and squawked at me. as i was walking back up the driveway i realized that the little squirrel hadn't gone far. i came inside, got my camera and took a few pictures. cute little guy!

later in the day as i was unloading groceries from my car lucy was wandering around the driveway. i saw her get a line on one of the baby squirrels and run after it. surprisingly, it didn't run and it faced her without fear. at first i thought it was going to attack her but as events transpired i came to realize that the squirrel was playing with her. they played in our front yard for 10 minutes or so before i made lucy come in because i was definitely afraid that the squirrel would attack me or wil. of course, it didn't seem to mind us because it was focused entirely on lucy. (and lucy on it!)

after lunch, on our way for a walk, lucy again spotted the little guy/gal. she ran over to the tree and it ran up the tree and then down and they began chasing each other around the base of the tree. at one point, the squirrel even rolled on it's back and began playfully batting at lucy. if i hadn't seen it with my own eyes, i would never believe it.

lucy lived a dream today - she got up close and personal with a squirrel and, hey, maybe made a friend for life. judge for yourself!

ps: i will not have my feet held to the fire over the fact that she isn't heeding ONE command i give her. there was a squirrel there for goodness sake!