Big ol' Glutton...

Little Bear has turned out to be quite the predator. He was such a floppy, clumsy puppy that when he started showing up with dead rabbits I wondered how they'd died. These days there's no question left about that. I was working on the Lair early before it got hot this morning - Ghost started clamoring for a walky, and so I dropped what I was doing, took up my canteen and my rifle, and we went out into the wash. Up the hill and across the ridge we went, and Ghost took off after a rabbit with LB right behind. Ghost chases rabbits all the time but never catches them - the one time he almost accidentally caught a rabbit he didn't really want it. Walked around holding it by the scruff for a while, then dropped it next to Magnus who promptly killed and ate it.

With LB, though, there's no uncertainty. He likes to chase rabbits too, but he's in it for the food. So this time they went blasting after this bunny, I sat down to wait, and five minutes or so later LB came trotting back with a big, very dead cottontail in his jaws. Having done that, of course, he loses all interest in walkies. All he wants is a shady spot to lie and chow down. I had no intention of sitting there for half an hour while he made his meal, so I insisted on heading back to the Lair. Once LB got with the program he disappeared entirely, which pissed me off somewhat: I stood at the top of the ridge overlooking the Lair, calling and calling but he didn't come. Then I looked down to the Lair - and there he was, in the shadow of the cabin, looking up at me as if to say, "What? I'm just where you wanted me to go, right? What are you yelling about?"

Dumb as a box of rocks, but he still manages to be smarter than me sometimes. 8^}