Zeke's "Friend"

[David C.]

Margie and Jessica were out in the backyard when Zeke began acting strangely.   When Margie went to investigate, she found Zeke standing over a dead Robin.  It was a juvenile...maybe no more than a month old.   Zeke kept standing by it and poking it, hoping it would play.   The Robin, being deceased, obviously was not cooperating.   Zeke never tried to eat it, and only once poked at it hard enough with his snout to toss it up in the air.    Zora gave the dead bird a very wide berth.   She wanted absolutely nothing to do with it.

Eventually they went in, and when I got home, I let Zeke take me to the bird.  I picked up a shovel, carried it over to the corner of our yard, dug a small hole and buried it.  All the while, Zeke kept following me around.   After the bird was buried, Zeke continued to sniff the area intently.   I finally called out "Zeke, want a TREAT?".   He immediately forgot about the bird and headed inside at light speed.

I found the Zeke's behavior curious.  Rudy-angel would have undoubtedly tried to eat the bird.  Max-angel would have likely tried to eat it, too, or at least roll on it.  Zeke seemed more interested in having a playmate than trying to kill the already dead bird.  Zora's behavior was far more understandable as she is completely lacking in the predatory instinct department...except with toys.  I'm not sure what killed the bird...no real outward sign of trauma.  It's possible the juvenile Robin was a sloppy flyer and crashed hard into our silver maple.   I'm just thankful Zeke didn't try to eat it!

[Dee Dee and Hallie]

Ugh. I'm glad he didn't try to eat it too. I would suspect Hallie would have given it a delicate sniff then walked away in disgust.

[sollysmom]

Count yourself lucky.  Solly would've rolled in it if I didn't catch him in time.   

Darcel

[Dr. Beau Leaky]

:thinik: When we lived in Puerto Rico (1976-1979) my Irish setter, Rebecca, used to "play" with the lizards and the coqui frogs.  She was so fast, she caught them all the time.

Once she caught the unlucky playmate, she would gently pick it up in her mouth, and set it down on the patio.  Then she would nudge it with her paw or her nose, encouraging it to open its eyes and join in the game.  As with Zeke's robin, the reptile did not co-operate.

My then-husband would remove the deceased an toss it over the fence into the jungle.

Karen

[klsb]

We had an Akita/Boader Collie that would do the same! Hoss would catch these HUGE grasshopers and jump on them (looked like they were playing leap frog) then he would eventually crush it by mistake and sit with his nose about two inches from it unaware that grasshoppers cant play when flat, untill we removed the deceased bug.

[scootersmom]

The Robin, being deceased, obviously was not cooperating.

Heh.  No, I guess not. 

Scooter definitely would have tried to eat the poor wee dead thing.  Which would've proved extra-problematic, due to his very low number of teeth...

[cheryl186]

My two would have fought over who got to eat it!!!

[Barb]

Awwwwww.... glad he didn't eat it either !!!!  At least he didn't try to sneak it in my house....which both Ru and Bran have done !

[Marcia from MI]

My boys never tried to eat the dead things in the yard, no they just liked to play tug-o-war with a dead possum.

[Madderoos Mom]

My two would have brought it in the house AND THEN fought over who got to eat it.  YUCK!