It's Hard to Come By...

Dog trainers today talk about treats having "high" or "low" value, but Skid was the first dog I knew who clearly ranked edibles. Luckily, his new pack included my husband, a dedicated mostly carnivorous man who likes a variety of animal protein.

Our experience at the veterinarian's office was repeated at the pet store, several friends' houses, and my workplace. Skid would sniff carefully at the offered tidbit and politely refuse any that didn't meet his criteria. I started carrying Skid-approved treats, handing them out as needed.

Although he would eat some packaged dog treats that boasted they were "real meat" Skid preferred hotdogs and luncheon meat — bologna, ham, beef, salami — and all sorts of cheese. He valued our dinner meats the most, awarding extra credit if he got a bite before it was cooked.

From the beginning, he proved himself an able and enthusiastic hunter, particularly of smaller prey creatures (mice, rats, moles, squirrels, even unwary birds). He could be sneaky and was surprisingly fast.

He had survived in the countryside where prey is plentiful but garbage cans are fortified against four-legged raiders.

For a couple of weeks after Skid came to live with us, I worked from home, avoiding office interruptions while wrapping up some tricky documentation for a complex part of a network modeling system, my employer's signature product.

My desk was in a kitchen corner.

One day, I was banging away on the computer and Forrest was unpacking groceries. Skid appeared at my knee and whined for my attention. When I met his eyes, he looked across the room at Forrest then began dancing between us.

"What's with Skid?" I asked. "He's real excited about something."

"I got rabbit from the butcher's," Forrest said.

If the rough school of nature had taught the pup anything, it taught him that rabbits are quick and tricky. Surely Skid thought he'd fallen in with the best hunting pack ever!>>



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Bubba Doodah Skid