# Eustace protects his Mama



## barbiespoodle (Apr 25, 2010)

I love this pic, just had to share it. 

Eustace (pronounced U Stus) is my pound puppy, I refer to him as my Airedale/hellhound cross and is very much my problem child. I think there is an old saying about the problem child winning the mothers heart, well that is my Eustace. 

When I adopted him from the pound I told Eustace that one of his jobs was to protect his Mama from the psychotic chipmunks that run around the outside of the house, hey, I've actually had one of the crazy little buggers attack me, imagine, a tiny little chippy coming after a person with all intent to do damage, lol. 

Anyhow, had one of those demonic, striped beast, storing food in the woodpile outside the huge picture window that faces out on the side porch and Eustace was on patrol. This pic shows Eustace keeping an eye out on it, making sure it doesn't come after his Mama. 

BTW, I have no fear of chipmunks, I enjoy watching them scamper around the gardens and think they are cute, have even hand fed them, just don't piss them off, I'd rather face a cranky lion than a pissed off chipmunk, lol.


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## Charmed (Aug 4, 2014)

Nike is our patrol dog. He regularly dispatches mice, lizards, rats, and squirrels. He got an opossum once but it played dead and escaped. He also got one of my chickens, but I don't blame him, I blame his mother for not supervising him properly. Wilson has never killed anything. Isn't it strange, being that they are brothers and their prey drive is so different? Wilson was raised with Sailor as his mentor and Sailor does not have much prey drive. Nike was raised with the Airedale and she was a big time huntress. I don't know if that is a factor. Interestingly enough, all of our dogs have been trained to ignore our indoor pet rodents. Sailor was the best; he liked to have the rats walk on him.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

I like watching chipmunks also from a distance! We were on Cape Cod and I was walking Lily on the grounds of where we were staying and she had never seen them before but were all over the place. She has the hide a squirrel toy which really has little animals that look a lot more like chipmunks than squirrels (which she sees frequently around home) so she thought she could try to pick one up. She leaned in and was quite taken aback by having it yell at her and jump up towards her face as she jumped backwards. That encounter never dampened her enthusiasm for her toy ones though.

Separately I can identify totally with not liking interacting with wild rodents. Many years ago I was wandering through Strybing Arboretum in Gold Gate Park and realized I was being stalked by a squirrel. I went off paths, hid in plantings and such and still it followed me. The encounter ended when it jumped on my leg and started to climb up towards my torso and I suppose ultimately come sit on my shoulder or something. I screamed and shook it off and it didn't come back, but it was horrible. I much prefer my Central Park history of being able to be in a particular spot in The Ramble where the chickadees, titmice and cardinals are tame enough to land on your hand to take sunflower seeds.


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