That one time my dog didn’t eat a rat.

Disclaimer: The photos in this post are mediocre at best. Still, I wanted to share them simply because they’re proof that my dog isn’t a murderer. Enjoy!

 

My neighbors have rats.

Rats are pretty awesome. They’re super intelligent, trainable and adorable…minus that tail. I feel kind of bad saying that, but that tail is anything but cute, am I right? All hairless and awkward looking. But I digress..

So a lot of the time, these rats are caged in my neighbor’s backyard, which wouldn’t be an issues except for the fact that these super smart rats get out of their cage.

All. The. Time.

At first, we tried to warn them that this escape game was happening pretty often and their rats were ending up in our backyard. You know, the same backyard in which our dog(s) run free and do their business. We have a wooden privacy fence, but sections of it are pretty open – gapped big enough for a rat to do whatever he damn well wants to do.

My neighbor lady is so sweet, and she was genuinely sorry for the situation. I explained to her that my biggest concern was that my crazy hound dog would hurt the rats if they ever happened to be in the same place at the same time, an event that would no doubt traumatize me for years to come. She understood where I was coming from and did her best to contain her rodents.

But guess what? Rats are very, very smart.

So one day, while we were still fostering Miss Hattie, all three of us were just hanging out in the backyard and catching some rays when one of the brave little rats decided to pay us a visit. Before I could even react, the dogs were at the fence checking out their new best friend. And guess what? Neither of them wanted to do any murdering whatsoever! I honestly couldn’t believe it.

The worst thing that happened is that Hattie got a little bark-y when the rat kept teasing them by going in and out of the fence, playing a game of chase. But other than that? Rufus just stared at his friend, sometimes whining when he would disappear onto his side of the fence. It blew my mind.

My hound dog mix that goes bananas anytime a cat runs by him in the neighborhood. My crazy man that makes chirping noises whenever he sees a squirrel hanging out on the power lines. Does this mean he’s all talk? I have no idea, and I certainly don’t want to risk it….but it just goes to show that you never know when mother nature will throw you for a loop.

Hooray! My dog doesn’t want to kill things….or at least not things with super gross, bald tails.