Mouse Hunting - A spectator's sport

So, last Sunday we were still up in Hunstville recovering from the night before. ;) It was a beautiful day and Bart, Price, and I were hanging out in the backyard watching the snow melt and Brisket play.

After a little while, Brisket figured out that there were mice living under the snow! Apparently, the field mice burrow in the grass building little insulated colonies under the snow, subsequently ruining your lawn. The neighbors had warned us that we would start noticing them and the remains of their little shallow tunnel systems as the snow receded, but Sunday was the first day we'd really started to notice.

Brisket got really excited and started after the mouse until she finally got it and sort of half played - half killed the mouse for a good 10 min. It was really foul, but kind of exciting to know that she, being a mellow dog, had been overcome by her animal instincts! Then she got bored, Bart got it with a shovel and hucked it over the fence. Of course, it didn't end there...

After the 5th mouse, Brisket was a pro at finding these mice and had become bored much faster. She realized that they had long sharp teeth that bit back, so she started killing them right away and moving on to find the next. That is when we got my parents to come out and watch.

After about 3 hours of this, Brisket had caught 11 mice (and Bart actually killed one too with the shovel!) and had gotten quite tired! By that point we were cheering her on as her very own crowd of fans! Who knew that one of the most pleasant spring afternoons (never mind disgusting- we were over that after the 3rd kill) could have been spent watching our sweet dog mouse hunt!