A few weeks ago, Major Tom started digging a hole near our shed in the back yard. It wasn’t much, just a little dirt moved away from the rails running around the bottom of the shed forming a flower bed, near one of the corners.
I fussed at him about it and he stopped.
The next day he continued. I couldn’t figure out what he was so fascinated by. I looked in the hole and couldn’t see anything that might draw his attention.
Later that afternoon I watched him as he went out. He went back to where he was digging, stuffed his nose in the hole, sneezed, then started digging again. Put a stop to it again. Magdalena was also showing interest in the hole.
Then we got some snow and ice in the area. They kept running out in the back yard and started digging more holes.
We had some relatively good weather last week. All the snow and ice melted away. And the dogs were busy digging up half the back yard. Major Tom and Magdalena would come in, their faces and paws covered in mud. They tracked mud all over the dining room and kitchen floors. That was fun to clean (not!).
At least they were good enough to groom themselves and get all the dirt off.
I still couldn’t figure out what they were so diligently digging up the yard to find. At one point both Magdalena and Major Tom made messes all over the house during the nights. Presumably related to all the digging activity.
Last night I ultimately found out what they’ve been after.
Magdalena was coming in from the night’s final potty break. She had something in her mouth. I thought maybe it was a stick. I wouldn’t let her in and tried making her drop it. She resisted mightily. I final forced her jaws open enough so the item fell out of her mouth.
It was a dead mole.
I got the dogs inside, then put the body on the other side of our fence. It is a wooded area so I’m assuming something will take care of the corpse for us.
I felt bad for the little guy. He’s just doing mole things and then this monstrous beast digs him up and chews on him.
Meanwhile half of our yard has been dug up. Come Spring we’ll most likely need to fill in the holes with new dirt and re-seed the lawn.
I’m not sure how we keep the dogs from digging up the rest of the yard in the meantime.
If you have any suggestions, my Hordeling, hit reply and let me know.
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