good puppy

Puppy is a lab retriever/terrier mix. I primarily see the terrier in her, though I can see from her early puppy pictures why her adoption papers would list her as a lab retriever mix instead of the other way around.

Anyway, when we were going through obedience training with her, the trainer mentioned that all dogs were bred for some purpose. Terriers are, apparently, varmint hunters. This week, Puppy has finally started getting to her roots.

Now, we knew we had a mouse or two, as we've seen them scurrying into little holes. But we've had troubles trying to figure out how to catch the mice seeing as how we weren't sure where we could place traps or poison that Puppy wouldn't get into.

This weekend, she helped us begin to solve this dilemma. She's been mad at trying to get under the oven. So on Sunday, we pulled it forward a bit to see what she was trying to get at, and a mouse scurried behind the fridge. This was good news for us, because we've now found a place we can set traps. It was even better news for Puppy because we pulled it forward enough that she could get her head in there and sniff it out, which made her happy.

But it was today when Puppy earned herself a little reward. After taking her on patrol around the neighborhood, I came back home and took a shower. After the shower, Puppy seemed a bit more anxious than normal to have my attention. But I just let it go--she's been this way the last few mornings because she doesn't want me to leave for work, what with all the cuddling I've managed to squeeze in with her at night with Dec spending nights in Orem doing renovation work for his mom.

I finally got to the point where I was getting dressed. I headed to Puppy's room (because that's where the big closet with all the belts is). And there was Puppy. She had a rather pleased expression on her face as she directed my attention to her paws.

A mouse. More importantly, a dead mouse.

Yes, Puppy caught a mouse. And so I gave her a treat for doing her job. I also gave her a second treat for being better than a cat. Had a cat caught that mouse, it would have a) not killed the mouse and b) brought the mouse to me in the middle of the night and dropped it on my chest.

So Puppy is a very good dog.

And like any proud parent, I put the mouse in a plastic sandwich bag, sealed it, and hung it on the fridge for Dec to see when he gets home for work.