One-Liner Wednesday – Try the Other Door

One Line Wed, Pets, Wildlife 50 comments

“Um, excuse me…this is a dog, you know”

Monday and Tuesday gave us a break from almost a week of hot – 90°f (32.2°c) – days. Monday brought some heavy rain, but yesterday was just a cool, cloudy day. Maddie looked at me as if to say “it’s not too hot to sit outside today” then she looked at her cot, which is her subtle way of hinting. So, we sat.

After a few minutes, I noticed Maddie focusing on the driveway. The little guy in the photos kept getting closer, stopping only to stand for a while in that cute “do you have some nuts for me?” pose.

I tried to explain that Maddie really is dangerous. Then I told the squirrel to try the front yard.

It rained pretty hard on Monday.
Maddie noticed this little guy right away.
“Hi there. Just checking to see if you have anything for me to eat.”
“I’ll just get a little closer”
“Do you have anything for me to eat?”
“Do you see that squirrel? He doesn’t seem to notice me.”
“Now there’s something on the other side…”

This post is part of Linda G. Hill’s fun weekly series One-Liner Wednesday. You can follow this link to see the one-liners from the other participants.

50 comments

  2. Thanks for starting our Wednesday with a Maddie post, Dan. And a squirrel to boot. It’s sad that the two of them can’t be friends and have fun playing together…but I guess most dogs and squirrels are on opposite sides of the fence when it comes to being civil.

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    1. You and the rest of Maddie’s adoring fans are welcome, Mary. I had a different one-liner in mind, but this just happened last night.

      Maddie is very calm, until they run. Then she wants to run. If we bring her in right after that, she will chase one of our cats – which results in Maddie being chastised, big time!

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      1. Instinct is hard to fight. We had two small, squawking birds on the patio Monday night…while Gibbs was out there. I freaked a little because he’s gone after birds before and I was afraid he would climb the screen after them. Disaster was averted, but I can never change the way Gibbs and Ziva think about birds, same as with Maddie and the squirrels. Instinct!

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    1. Pretty much, Lois. They know. It seems that we’re the maternity ward. Mommas come here and then leave but the babies stick around for the easy eats. We are trying not to have any of them become dependent on us, but they are pretty cute.

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  5. We took care of a dog waiting for adoption that had a squirrel addiction. When we took him to the door, he looked all around for them and then, if he didn’t spot any, he’d start scanning the trees!! Of course, the neighborhood was full of squirrels and to make matters worse, that year we had a family of about 7 in our yard. Yikes! He would lean into his leash and sort of moan and the problem was that he was a big, strong dog, so it made life interesting to say the least.

    janet

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    1. That would be hard. A strong dog, moving quickly can cause all kinds of trouble. Fortunately, Irish Setters are driven to find the things we’re supposed to shoot. The big male we had about 15 years ago would go into stealth mode and sneak up on birds or squirrels. We would clap or yell his name to get the animal’s attention. They would run away and the dog would look back at us like we were stupid.

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  6. The flower photo is GORGEOUS! Of course, Maddie is naturally photogenic. I love the squirrel progression. :D Good idea, not letting Maddie get her Irish up before taking her indoors. It’s just asking for trouble, and the wrong one gets chastised if you make a bad judgment on that, amIright?

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    1. You’re either right or you’re better at identifying the right one. I’m glad you like the flower. It made taking Maddie out worth it (since she didn’t bother to pee).

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    1. She also looks at me as if to say: “Yo! There’s a squirrel right there. Aren’t you going to do something?” Fortunately, she’s content to watch for a long time. I had to make sure this little clown didn’t come inside the gate. Last week, one ran for the fence and Maddie ran after it. We were attached and she pulled me and my chair over onto the grass.

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  10. So as I am reading your post, I hear Scooter lapping up water in the bathroom. We keep an ice cream bucket of water in the shower for Scooter and the cats….but then I think, “Did I leave the toilet lid up?”

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  11. Maddie’s so beautiful! I love the curl in her ears and her coloring.

    The squirrel, and your narrative are cute. Diva Dog loves to chase the squirrels from our yard.
    Hope the little guy found the other door for something to eat!

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    1. Thanks! From an Irish Setter standard point of view, Maddie is a mess, but she’s our mess and we love her.

      I’m sure he made his way to the front yard, or any one of the other houses in this neighborhood that either feeds the squirrels or have easy-to-rob bird feeders.

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    1. You could be right. They get pretty close, even when we’re in the yard. She likes being on a leash, but she only even pulls on it if they run. That seems to trigger some instinctive response.

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  14. SO CUTE! I am amazed at how brave squirrels can get! I was reading Farmgirl a few weeks ago, and she had BUNNIES coming up to the glass door in front of her dog! I had never seen brave bunnies, but our squirrels seem insane in their courage to approach predators.

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    1. We have one squirrel that will put its front feet up on the front door. Maddie doesn’t usually see that, but she has, and we also have two cats. I don’t know what either cat would do, but MuMu gets roweled when she sees them from a window. She snarls and twitches her tail. The bunnies don’t come too close, but they also don’t seem to move. They look at me when I’m walking Maddie as if to say “you can go around me…right?”

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  18. Dan, looks like a stand-off! Think the squirrel sees there’s a fence in between, and Maddie’s not moving. So, “I can come close and tease her.” Maddie is a beautiful dog, love pics of her. Happy Wednesday! 🐶 Christine

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  21. Hmm.. Maddie doesn’t want you to be mad.. Or she will be in a heap of trouble. Still I wonder if the squirrel came through, would she have followed her instincts?

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  23. Maddie is such a serious and possibly not an attack kind of dog but the squirrel may need to be barked at to realize the danger! It is a tough situation.
    My ex grew up with a baby squirrel (who slept in his dresser drawer) but once we had a dog (fenced in backyard, too) he realized he might have to feed the squirrels out front. Sitting on our front porch, squirrels ran across the street, unfortunately one didn’t look both ways which permanently stopped his feeding them nuts. Sad, but true. . .

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    1. Don’t tell my wife about squirrels sleeping in dresser drawers – oh my, no. Our feeding ramped-up a little this year after a mom-squirrel was killed on the road in front of our house. My wife saw the two babies near their mom’s body and she’s been feeding them ever since. Trying hard not to make them dependent, but not letting them die from neglect.

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  24. Maddie is such a cool dog. I’m impressed that she could stay still with the little guy so close. My Lab went crazy when a squirrel was in her vincinity. Or a crow. Or a hawk. Nothing seemed out of reach for her. She missed them all but never lost hope :)

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