On our walk today our red dog ate a mouse.

[hunter]

Grabbed it out of the dry grass, crunched it dead (a sound one doesn't forget), and swallowed it.

As a fellow omnivore I understand. Sometimes I eat beef, chickens, and fish.

But not like that.

She looked incredibly pleased with herself and the other dogs were jealous.

I'm still a little disturbed by the surprise of it.

[nolabear]

1. Check her for worms in the near future.

Those little suckers can be packin'.

[hunter]

4. We have a close relationship with our vet.

Our animal shelter rescue dogs can be idiots.

We've got one who avoids every other animal but skunks and rattlesnakes. Those she wants to play with.

[a la izquierda]

6. Oh lord, I know your pain. Nt

[PoliticAverse]

2. Dogs don't need to chew food like humans do. Just tell her no more snacking

between meals.

[Xipe Totec]

3. I killed a copperhead in my backyard once with a machete

Out came five or six mice in various stages of digestion.

Not a pretty sight. Better to keep the mouse inside the dog.

[In_The_Wind]

5. I pulled a dead mouse out of my dog's mouth.

ew

[Hassin Bin Sober]

13. I shook a live squirrel off my dog's cheek and collar.

She finally got herself one after all those years of chasing. I couldn't bear to watch so I went inside and sent the boyfriend out. He comes running back inside saying "it's stuck in her collar!!!"

I go out there and find the poor bloody squirrel with its teeth sunk in to the dog's cheek and a death-grip on the dog's collar - under my girl's chin just out of reach.

The dog has this look like "now what the fuck do I do?"

We grabbed her collar, shook, and let the poor bloody thing make its escape up a tree.

All those years, we would sick her on squirrels across the field. Great exercise and she never got within 10 feet of one before they found safety of a tree.

This time was different. She had just gotten over being sick and was down to her fightin' weight. She drove in to a pack of about four or five squirrels - haulin' ass with dust kicking up on her heels. Like a cartoon. Squirrels going every way doin' back-flips -the dog was doin' back-flips. She got on the trail of the poor thing and sent it in to a panic run. It was so panicked it was bouncing off trees rather than climbing to safety.

I hope it lived.

[In_The_Wind]

14. I'm glad your dog survived.

Wow!

[Hassin Bin Sober]

15. Well they weren't Russian squirrels or anything.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4489792.stm
Russian squirrel pack 'kills dog'

Black squirrel (archive)
Local people suggest hunger is driving squirrels to extremes

Squirrels have bitten to death a stray dog which was barking at them in a Russian park, local media report.
Passers-by were too late to stop the attack by the black squirrels in a village in the far east, which reportedly lasted about a minute.

[avebury]

7. My dog is a good mouser (better

then the cat). Fortunately he only kills them and then leaves them alone.

[Jenoch]

8. We had a cat that would cat striped gophers in our yard.

When he decided to eat them, he would start at the head. I can still remember the crunching sound it made. The cat ate everything buy the back feet and tail.

[LiberalEsto]

10. One of our cats did that with squirrels he caught

eating them the same way and leaving nothing but the tail. This was back in the 60s.

[Jenoch]

11. We used to have a cat that never

caught a bird, but did catch mice, voles, and gray squirrels with frequency but he never ate them. Since our house was in some old oaks, he even once caught a flying squirrel. I didn't even know they were their since they are strictly nocturnal.

[Flaxbee]

12. our cats eat all parts of the mouse (feet, legs, tail) except some lima-bean shaped/sized innard

that is ignored and usually left on the front porch welcome mat.

I only let them out for about 2 hours per day before I leave for work and the big guy (Ivan) is a serious mouser - we have a raised front porch with trellising to cover the gap between ground and porch and I think that is mouse heaven, until one of them steps outside the boundaries... then Ivan pounces. He used to bring them to me with broken backs (still alive) but I ordered him to either kill them instantly, or leave them alone. He's taken to killing them instantly.

Ivan rarely eats them. He brings the carcasses to Novi and she scarfs them down. Spits out (or avoids) the one innard. Never barfs anything back up; her powers of digestion are impressive.

[marzipanni]

16. From what I have just read, I think it's the liver ("Meo-ewwww! Bile is bitter!")

I will not eat it from a mouse
I will not eat it from a louse
I do not like green organ jam
I do not like it, Cat-I-Am

- Tom Tildrum

from: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=73712

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. One of my cats caught a mouse that had got in.

He ate it in the living room while I was trying to read something. That crunching sound is definitely disturbing.