Kooper, my 8 year old yellow lab-mix is an integral part of our family. I have written about his antics and adventures previously, and he continues to reinforce the nickname of Kooper the Dim.
He also seems to be somewhat of a minor local celebrity. I have had folks come up to me in their boats and ask if they could watch him swim and jump off the dock. A neighbor a few houses down from us introduced herself to us by bring us snapshots of him in the water, and stories of sitting out on her dock just to watch him.
He is part Lab. He loves the water, and has an instinct for hunting. He has been known to jump off the dock to chase the fish that school around my dock. However, many times when I let him out to take care of business he immediately gets distracted by the squirrels, birds and chipmunks, proceeding to chase them around the yard. He has never caught one, but he is persistent.
This year I seem to have a chipmunk infestation. I have holes all over my yard, in the flower gardens, everywhere. They are very destructive. I needed to “thin the herd’. We went to Tractor Supply looking for a solution. We found the Chipmunk-inator. This is a live trap that I bait with corn chex cereal or peanuts. When I capture one, we take a trip to the wetlands for release back into the wild.
The other day I let Kooper out with me as I was taking my trash up to the road for garbage day. I hear furious barking from the other side of the house and head there to see what it’s all about. We had a chipmunk in the trap and Kooper thought he had someone new to play with.
He had picked up the trap in his mouth by some means , and the chipmunk was running back and forth inside it. Somehow he had picked up the trap upside down and when that happens the “trap” door falls open.
The chipmunk finally figured out that it could get out. The problem was that the door led right into Kooper’s mouth. What a brave or foolhardy thing to do, run straight into a dog’s mouth.
Kooper didn’t know what happened when the chipmunk ran into, and then out the side of his mouth. Kooper dropped the cage and took off after the chipmunk. Unfortunately for Kooper he was near a tree when all this happened. The chipmunk hit that tree at speed, and was up it and gone before you could blink. Kooper, on the other hand, had his 100 pounds going at full speed and couldn’t quite stop fast enough to avoid the tree. He hit it. Then he tried to climb it. A little bit stunned and embarrassed [I think] he sat at the bottom of that tree and barked. And barked.
Kooper is all right, however he is not happy with that tree. He spent the rest of the morning sitting under that tree looking up at it. Every now and he would walk to the other side and “take care of business” on it. That tree is now his favorite spot to take care of business.
The chipmunk is still here taunting him.