The view from my backyard . . .

I am about to admit something that I found today that was absolutely horrifying in my backyard!!! Don and I are working on a project that will be revealed sometime this month on our blog (it is almost finished!!). As I was about to begin my stage of the project, I noticed Godiva shoot around to the side yard. Not completely out of the norm, since she is a huge chaser of anything that moves even grass and sticks sometimes. When she returned to the main yard, she was not alone. She was preceded by a young robin that was flying low to the ground. It was squealing bloody murder and as I continued to watch this saga enfold before my eyes, I realized why it was screeching so awfully. . . GODIVA! Out of nowhere her paw batted the bird back to the ground and continued the chase on her level. She continued to play cat and mouse throughout the backyard. The bird then brought backup. I had several other robins sitting on the tree limbs, surrounding fences and shed all squawking at the hunter and yet helpless in their attempt to free their friend. Godiva paying no mind to anything other than the prey in front of her amused herself by grabbing the bird by the wing and flinging it. (You are probably thinking, "Katrina, for goodness sake, do something, anything, for the life of this helpless bird rests in your hands!!") So being the quick and independent thinker that I am, I picked up my cell and called Don! I held the phone up in the air so he could hear the chaos coming from our small backyard and explained that our dog, yes dog, not lion, had caused this ruckus. He brought me back to the sobering reality that Godiva is a Labrador Retriever. She is bred to retrieve birds and that I should tell her "good girl" and put her in the house and we'll deal with the defeathered carcass later. To which I submissively responded, okay. But I couldn't do this before I got some good photos for those who are visual learners! =) I then had to call the mother of Godiva's best friend to explain that I don't think our dogs are good for each other anymore (completely joking!). Godiva has taught Cali some naughty habits, and now it seems as if Cali is teaching Godiva a thing or two about a dog's life (Sorry Sarah, your secret is no longer safe!)





For those of you who are still worried about the bird, I brought Godiva back into the house; I pulled out the shovel and freed the bird into our neighbor's yard. However, I don't believe this bird will make it back into the tree. I never thought of my sweet Godiva being so cruel. Fly hunter, yes! Cockroach killer, Yes, Yes! Cricket smoosher, fine and dandy! Grasshopper chomper, that is just grand! Bird torturer, I'm not too keen on this new development! This now concludes the episode of "The Circle of Life at our Chesapeake Home"! Excuse me as I go and wash out Godiva's mouth, which is suppose to be one of the cleanest mouths all of the animal kingdom, but is now infected with all the diseases that the bird might have been carrying with it!