Sunday, July 01, 2001

Ted The Wonder Fuzzball


My wife has been out of town for a few days on vacation to visit with family. So this means that the dogs and I have the run of the house!

The mighty Hoover and his little sidekick Ted have no one but me to follow around the house, or the yard or into the bathroom. This has had the largest effect on Ted. Ted is my wife's shadow, wherever she goes, he goes, if she sits down, he jumps in her lap, if she goes to bed, he snuggles up next to her .. you get the idea. The past few days he has had only me to shadow and I am afraid that I am just not as entertaining to him as my wife is. 

Boring as I am to this small fuzzy dog he has had much more time to devote to his only other interest .. patrolling the perimeter of the yard. To Ted, this is his domain and no one shall enter his domain nor shall they walk near or for that matter fly over his domain. He is diligent in his duty to bark sharp high pitched yelps at whatever he can see or hear or imagine is within his area. Anything that dares enter his yard (and is smaller that he is), will be dealt with in a severe manner. 

Over the past few years this tiny terror has caught and attempted to eat a large number of creatures foolish enough to enter his yard including 3 or 4 bunnies, a dozen snakes, several birds,  a squirrel, and at least three possum. The bunnies I understand, our neighborhood is home to dozens of little rabbits and when one comes into the yard, sometimes they just can't get back through the fence fast enough to avoid capture. The same could apply to the possum, but what I wonder about is how does he catch the birds? Are the birds in my yard just so full from emptying my feeders that they can't escape a small dog? Or does Ted have some form of stealth shielding that allows him to sneak up and attack without warning? I may never know for sure, but I can offer that if you wish to rid your yard of small vermin or you just want to keep your lap warm, get yourself a Pomeranian. If you are lucky, yours won't carry a dead possum into the living room.