Mole hunting

Maggie and Addie have grown to be good friends from all the agility shows, road trips, and sharing water buckets. It's a good thing, too, because Addie's mom and I have grown to be good friends from all the same things. Okay, well maybe the drinks we share aren't water, but you get the point.

There is one thing that those dogs like almost as much as agility, and that is mole hunting. Fortunately for them, the field next to the agility trial this weekend was full of moles. Any trip out to potty resulted in quick flicks of the paws and holes big enough to bury even Addie's big muzzle up to the eyeballs. They would both dig their "scent" hole and then stop at the same time and sniff the fresh earth. They would grunt and snort for 20 or 30 seconds, then at the same time, their heads would pop up and they would dig more. And using some doggy communication that was a mystery to us, they would often simultaneously pop out of their snorting hole and quickly switch places, snorting earth in the hole the other had just dug. It was amazing how fast and furious they would work, yet at the same time know exactly what the other one was doing. You could not help but laugh at their antics, with dirt flying and mud stuffed up their nostrils. But at the same time you had to realize that there was something much more primordial in their behavior. We were watching the ancient canines at work, hunting food and communicating through methods we don't understand.

But the digging had to be halted. Not only was the hole getting too big for us to repair by pushing dirt with our feet, but the dogs were getting filthy. Maybe someday we'll find a mole field where the owners don't care and Maggie and Addie can have a mole marathon.