Eeeeeewwwwwwwwwwww!

OK, Now I know dogs are hunters, so someone tell me why I get so skeeved out whenever they actually KILL something?! Actually, in the whole time we lived in Vermont, I never remember Zosia killing anything, despite the preponderance of field mice and bunnies. She surely liked to chase them, but never tried to kill them even when she caught them. Jimmy Ray is another story. He's had his fair share of birds and a squirrel. This morning as he was barking crazily while I made Jake's lunch, I peeked out the window and saw his nose buried in a gopher hole. I tried like crazy to call him in the house, because I have SEEN the gophers infesting our yard and they are HUGE! Nearly groundhog sized. Honestly, in a fight, I'm not sure the dog would win! Being a beagle, he of course totally ignored me, so when Jake came down I sent him out to see what was lying dead or dying in the yard. Jimmy Ray caught himself a mole. This made Jake happy as we really have a problem with the vermin in the yard. (vermin? when did I turn into Elmer Fudd Yosemite Sam ?! - whoops mixed up my Cartoon Characters there for a minute!) Of course, he doesn't have to go out and pick it up to get it in the trash (the mole was not QUITE dead when Jake went outside). Gross! At least today is trash day so the thing won't rot in our trash all week.

Oddly enough, he starts catching the things just when we bought our cure:
Yup, JuicyFruit. We tried the sonic spikes. They didn't do a darn thing. Really, I'd prefer not to kill the things, but they're totally worsening our already sorry excuse for a lawn and we ARE trying to not have the worst lawn in the neighborhood (no small task, given the majority of the neighborhood are retirees who spend a LOT of time in the yard!) We can't use poison without fear of the dogs digging it up, so gum it is. Apparently the gophers (and moles!) will eat the gum but they can't digest it, and akin to feeding seagulls alka-seltzer, they die from it (sans the belly explosion, I assume). Aaah, the joys of owning your own home, right?!