Perks of Dog Ownership #2

We are currently "blessed" with small, four-legged intruders in our basement. Are they mice? Are they rats? I'm not sure I want to know.

We know they're there when Our Best Friend stands by the wall panel at the bottom of the basement stairs and starts scrabbling at the wall. Mostly they stay in the walls. But last week one of them made a break for it. Our Best Friend was fussing at the furnace room door, and when The Spouse opened the door to investigate the peanut butter-baited trap, something small came shooting out.

We thought it escaped down the hole in the floor under the washing machine. Then, about half an hour later, our Middle Child, the Spouse and Our Best Friend went into the office. Suddenly, Our Best Friend lunged under my desk (MY DESK!!!) and came out with a new friend clutched in his mouth. Whether it died of fright or canine jaw pressure we don't know, but when Our Best Friend released the critter, it was an ex-rodent.

And they say you need cats to catch mice. This is the second one OBF has caught; the first predates the existence of this blog. Our winter mouse problem vanished quickly, as the barking and scrabbling at the wall scared them off. We hope to be rid of these new invaders too speedily in our days-- amen.

The Dog Park

We live a seven minute walk from our local dog park. I just learned recently that it used to be a "bus turnaround" point; hence, it has an oval cement path around the perimeter, and a bus shelter at one end. I always wondered how that bus shelter got there; now I know.

Our dog park is large and relaxing. Along with the oval track (which, prior to my recently acquired knowledge, I had assumed was put there by the city so we could walk along with our off-leash dogs), there are a few picnic tables, some large shade trees, and a water fountain. The water fountain has a human end at the top and a doggie spout at the bottom, with water bowls on the ground meant for the hounds, but I've seen larger breeds put paws up and drink from the human end. Humans don't drink from the fountain in the park; we bring bottled water, if we remember.