And the Leg Bone is Connected…
It may be the Christmas holiday season, but my dogs must be a little confused.
I think they believe it is Halloween.
Last week, I saw Sade lying in the woods across from the Belle Writer’s Studio gnawing on something.
“What do you have, girl?” I asked. She tightened the grip between her paws and chewed even harder.
As I drew closer, I realized it was what appeared to be a large leg bone. Not knowing what it was or where it came from, I took it away, wrapped it in paper and put it in the recycles bin until Dale could take a look.
I later took another rather large bone from Chloe.
On Monday, I had to take Dale to work. As we drove up the driveway in the pre-dawn darkness, Dale said, “Is that the hedgehog?” referring to something round and brown that looked like a hedgehog toy the dogs have.
Abbi has the habit of grabbing a toy and running out the open door with them before we can stop her.
Though he was running characteristically late, he got out to take a look.
Nope. It wasn’t the hedgehog, but a skull. Of what, I’m not sure, and I’m sparing you from looking at a photo. But the teeth look really ground down and there appears to be two rows of them, one right behind the other.
This is not a new thing here at Our Little House. Emma christened us into rural life during the first hunting season we were here by bringing us home a full deer head, minus the sawed off antlers.
But with her gone, these “prizes” have made both me and Dale wonder if, at some point, the dogs will do what we were unable to do and find Emma’s remains.
A prospect that has given me nightmares, to say the least.
What is the creepiest find your pet has brought home to you?
Oh, my. This brings to mind something that made me laugh until I cried once… had to do some hunting to find it.
http://dir.salon.com/story/tt/post/2005/10/19/posts_of_the_decade/index.html
OMG, Kim, as they say in the post, funny and horrific and all at the same time! Thanks for the link. Now I don’t feel so bad at all! 🙂
My cat has a cat door. One day he dropped a freshly-killed chipmunk on my living room carpet 🙁
Oh, my, Carrie. I’ve had a cat bring me mice once.
My dog brought a dead squirrel into my office and left it for me to find. Any thoughts that my beagle killed the rodent never crossed our mind. She is such a couch potato, she had to have found him dead.
Maybe it was just a really slow squirrel, Heather! 😉
Happy Birthday…hope it has been a great day.
About 20 years ago we had an old dog named Bud that dragged home the decaying remains of a deer and proceeded to roll in it. It was the head and torso with the hide still partially attached.
Thanks, Susan. Mine smell like they’ve rolled in something dead sometimes. At least they don’t bring the whole carcass home!
HI Kerri,
I see from other posts that it is your birthday, so just wanted to wish you all the best for a very happy day.
As for Emma, she is dashing around somewhere over the rainbow bridge now and could care less of her earthly remains.
Be well!
Thank you, Vida.
Yes, my happiest visions of Emma include her being young and agile again, jumping on as many big hay bales as she can find. At this point, though, I would rather just not have her remains drug home by the other dogs.
Happy Birthday to a good friend. May this day bring only good news. Love you
Thank you, Phillis. Love you too! 🙂
I hope this day only brings you good news. Happy Birthday, Kerri an many many more. Love
Our dog brought home a deer’s leg just this last week. She’s also brought a cow skull home and some other unidentifiable bones. Can’t say that it’s pleasant to walk out the front door and find part of an animal skeleton lying in the yard, but it seems to pretty much be a part of country life around here.
A couple of years ago, there was a big fuss about people in this area who had bones all over their yard. Neighbors reported it to the local police because the people on the property were considered very odd, anti-social and hostile, and also were suspected of dealing drugs from their home. After excavating the yard, sending dozens of bones off to be identified and having news reporters crawling all over the place, the bones were found to be nothing more than animal remains. I hope that’s all that our dog ever brings home, too!
Ugh, me too, Kathy. I’ve actually thought of them bringing home human remains too.
When my Sandy was still alive, she loved to bring me unusual gifts during our walks at the cabin. The last two she brought me were jawbones-one is a cow, and the other a deer.
Since I am a science teacher, these gifts are now( and for a long time to come) on display in my science lab.
Geez, how I miss that wonderful dog! Now I have to go on hikes alone to find things-and I am not as good as snuffling through the leaves, and forest debris to find “great items” as she was!
Kerri, clean bones with a bleach soak for a couple days, then you could give them to a teacher if they are too weird for you to display. In the last couple years, I have gathered jawbones (from Sandy),a couple femurs, some bird skeletons, but no skulls! Buying those items through a science warehouse would have cost a pretty penny.
That is an excellent suggestion, BJ! I have several of them now. We also had a jawbone, not sure what Dale did with it. But it was a beaver.
Kerri,
If you can find it, I will gladly adopt the beaver jawbone! would even be willing to make a donation to your rescue cause in exchange. BTW I am up in Missouri at least for the next week (yep, over Christmas!) so glad I had cut wood last time I was up here.
Thanks for the reminder, BJ. I will try to remember to ask Dale this week if he put it up. If not, the dogs got it and it is long gone, I haven’t seen it around for awhile.
However, if we don’t find it, this is a good reminder that you and other teachers might want this sort of “gift” our animals bring home. If you want the skull, I can send that along.
Oh, yes, would love to give the skull a home too!