[Dailydrool] houndie buries squirrel

[BRYAN MARTINEZ]

Tulip, my 9 year old rescue houndette and I just got back from our  
morning walk this morning. We walked for an hour (BRRR! still cold in  
Indiana!) in Eagle Creek Park, a large wooded area near Indy with  
ponds, ducks , hawks, deer etc etc. About halfway through Tulip caught  
a scent and went offtrail about 40 yards and found a red squirrel who  
had somehow died and probably within a day or two, it had no marks on  
it and was quite stiff. Well, she wasent going to eat it but she was  
sure going to make sure nobody else would. So she picked it up and  
joined me on the trail with her prize extending from both sides of her  
chompers. I was NOT going to allow her to take it home with us , but  
she was so proud of her find, I let her carry it back to the car to  
see what would happen. When we got in sight of the car, she started  
looking around at the leaf covered ground carefully. I knew she was  
looking for someplace to bury it. In her careful manner she went from  
spot to spot , pawing the ground here and there , looking for the  
perfect spot. Finally next to a tree(as I pretended not to see) She  
covered her prize with loose dirt and leaves. Then turned and trotted  
happily up to the car ready to go home for breakfast. so, just to mess  
with her I started the car and drove a little bit, then went back to  
the burial place and grabbed the squirrel and put it in the trunk. She  
was snoozing in the back and had no idea. So when we got home , I  
sneaked the deceased rodent into the backyard. Then when she went out  
in the backyard to do her usual sniffing, barking at nothing, peeing  
ritual she 'rediscovered' her , so she thought, carefully hidden  
'kill' How it got here was probably as much a mystery to her as to  
why , in the same place, sometimes one has to plow thorough a foot of  
snow and other times one is panting from extreme  
humidity.....Then ,looking through the backyard window with a cup of  
hot coffee, I got to enjoy her going through the same procedure of  
rooting around and  finding a final resting place in the backyard for  
her hapless squirrel . I know, not an exciting or even all that  
unusual story. But I wanted to mix in a happy story amongst all the  
sadness of travel to the Bridge.
Bassets bring me such amusement and joy!