I suppose I shouldn't be surprised...

I've always been a dog person. We pretty much always had a dog growing up and I loved all of them. When our last dog died, my parents decided that they weren't around enough to properly take care of a dog and rather than be unfair to one, they decided not to get one. I was in college at this point, so it was hard to argue the point, but I always wanted to get another dog.

Now when I say dog, I mean a real dog. I do not mean to offend anyone that has a lap dog, but in the house where I grew up dogs were not something that fit inside your purse. I'm not talking about a great dane either, but the dog should be of decent size. If the dog had to be in the position to protect the house, it could actually pull it off and not be laughed at by the intruder.

Years go by and I graduate college and go on to live in numerous apartments. I'm also of the opinion that you shouldn't get a dog (again, that would be a dog of decent size) if you don't have a yard for it to run around in, so no dog for Aunt P. Finally Mr Tall Guy and I get a house. The yard isn't huge, but big enough. I'm finally able to get a dog. By now the dog already has a name. I know I want a male dog and I know I want him to be a Brittany. My last dog growing up was a Brittany and I wanted another one. This leads me to the purpose of this post and to the drama I encountered this morning when I went to figure out where Wonder Mutt had gone...

For those of you that aren't very familiar with Brittany's, they are a sporting dog or commonly referred to as a Bird Dog. They not only point, but they also retrieve. Wonder Mutt has been pointing at things, including leaves, since he was just a pup, but this spring he really got interested in the hunt. Squirrels, birds, chipmunks, rabbits.... they all got his attention. He would point, do the slow approach and then occasionally make the pounce only to find that he was a) still attached to the lease and I wasn't going with him, or b) the other animals are just too fast and cagey for him. They can climb up trees, fly away, scamper out of the yard beyond the range of the electric fence or just disappear into a tiny little holes.

So going back to the title of the post, I really shouldn't be surprised. This morning Wonder Mutt got himself a bird. A baby bird, but a bird just the same. I don't know if he got the bird in it's inaugural flight or if the bird fell out of the nest, but he had him (or her as the case may be). It's nature. It's what dogs do. Especially bird dogs, but still. There is my baby. My little puppy staring at this bird on the ground, which is still alive by the way. I tried to go over to them, but I think Wonder Mutt grasped the idea that I was going to take away his new toy so he swatted at it. Luckily he was too fascinated to pay too much attention to me and I was able to grab his collar and take him into the house.

So now what do you do? Try to find the nest to put it back? I don't think you're supposed to touch them. It's injured so do you put it out of its misery? The birds in the trees are all squawking at me. Do I leave it and the other birds will swoop in and tend to it? Do birds do that? By the sounds of them they were definitely pissed off. Do I take it to an animal hospital?

For those of you wondering, no, I didn't kill it. I left it there like the wimpy coward that I am. I went back about 15 minutes later and it had moved 8 or so inches away from where I left it. Not sure if that's a good sign or not. Probably not though.

Like I said, I shouldn't be surprised. Now I just have to hope that this doesn't become a frequent occurrence. Did I mention that my neighbor has a squirrel killing cat?