Squirrel Bites Dog

When writing about the unusual claims we receive on the Hambone Nation blog, we usually gather as much information as possible and write the post. However, sometimes the pet owners describe the incident so perfectly that we’ll just post their account word-for-word. Such is the case with Bailey, a Jack Russell terrier owned by Diane and Steve Blair from Brentwood, California. Bailey found out the hard way how tough squirrels can be. This squirrel put up much more of a fight than that groundhog did back in July! Do you have an interesting story about your pet that you’d like to share? If so – send it to us!

So in the morning we take her for a walk in an area with jackrabbits, and she does enjoy a good early morning chase. A lot of times she just seems to enjoy using her nose to find them and making them run. Others she will chase for a few hundred yards yelping all the way then come back. Can’t figure out what makes some worth chasing and the others just rousting from their hiding spot. Then there’s the damn ground squirrels.

Ok, so she also enjoys making the ground squirrels run back into their holes. In the past the only ones she could run after are the little ones. The bigger older ones seem to know well ahead of time to get back into their holes. Sometimes we will see a dozen of the little guys making a sprint back into their hiding spot. So on the morning in question she saw a squirrel that had not run fast enough to satisfy her and she went running to the hole. She poked her nose down and came up with a big fat squirrel riding on top of her nose. She shook her head but I am pretty sure this was where she got the deep laceration on top of her nose.

Pretty sure at this point it changed from a game to her being pissed! She went after that squirrel which hadn’t made it back yet (she has reflexes like a snake) and grabbed it in her mouth. We were yelling at her to come back but that was when I heard her yelp pretty loud and she spit the squirrel out like it had a bad taste. Pretty sure this is where the deep laceration on her lower jaw came from.

This time I think she meant to settle a score and she went after it again, picked it up and shook the heck out of it before spitting it out. It was pretty obvious the squirrels were not made for that kind of a ride, and she no longer had an interest in the squirrel any more. We saw the blood start to drip from her nose and jaw, so we were off to the Vet again. Anyway so now you know the rest of the story.

Dr. Sims wasn’t too surprised when she saw it was Bailey:

• As a pup she bit into an electric cord and I happened to look down and see she was being electrocuted. First emergency visit.
• She found something in the back yard the pool worker had discarded a week or two before and scooped that up in a flash, and immediately showed signs of poisoning. Thought they had a better nose than that. Emergency visit number two.
• She jumped off an office file cabinet and we think the glass top somehow shifted as she jumped. Slashed her front shoulder and rear leg, emergency visit number three.
• At least twice managed to get a foxtail deep into her ear during a time of year foxtails don’t seem to be a problem for other dogs.

There have been a few other times she did something and had to live with a hood on, just can’t remember them all. So yea, we finally bought pet insurance but now she doesn’t seem to get hurt as much. Go figure.