Caught A Squirrel

[Guest OPointyDog]

Zoe caught her first squirrel this morning in the yard - she's recovering from a leg injury so she's never out there unsupervised, but she saw the squirrel before I did and in a flash had caught it and shook it so hard that eventually it died from it's injuries. I feel badly for the poor squirrel, though I know that's the way of things (I teach ecology, so I know sometimes the cheetah wins!).

 

I did not scold her (other than yelling "drop it" which didn't work), just grabbed her and brought her into the house. She seems to have a few scrapes (bites?) on her nose - it was dripping blood earlier, but I got it cleaned up with soap and water and put a little antibiotic spray on it. Nothing looks very deep. I don't think the spray will have a chance to work though, since she's licking her nose a lot. Anything I should watch for here?

 

The main thing I'm a little concerned about is how she is now a bit over-excited around one of our (indoor-only) cats. We always have Zoe confined with baby gates to about 4 joined rooms in the main floor of our house, and when we're with her, we raise the gates so the cats can come in and out. When Zoe's unsupervised, we put them down, and she's in her crate at night and when we're not home. She's mostly pretty good these days, with occasional slip-ups when she is wound up. She play bows to the cats and thumps her front legs at them, wanting them to play with her. We discourage that with a "NO CAT" and by redirecting her to other things - she only does maybe once a month now, so she's been pretty good.

 

Any advise on de-sensitizing her to the cats again? Should I just continue as normal and pretend nothing happened? Do you think she'll settle down when the excitement of the squirrel has passed?

 

RIP little squirrel....

[GeorgeofNE]

A wild animal outdoors isn't even close to the same thing as an indoor only cat who is clearly part of the family.

 

Your wise to keep up being vigilant, but don't buy into the nonsense about "once they've tasted blood...."

 

I assume her rabies shot is current (although squirrels rarely carry rabies according to my vet)?

[Guest OPointyDog]

Yes, rabies is current, as are all her other shots and vaccinations.

 

I agree about the "once they've tasted blood" - and I think the only blood she tasted was her own, actually! She has a shallow scrape on her nose that bled pretty profusely (I think the nose is pretty vascularized) but has stopped now. Not sure if it's a scratch from a claw or a bite.

 

I did go out to deal with the squirrel. She shook it pretty hard and I think broke its back. It was commando-crawling across the yard at first, and by the time I found a snow shovel and a box to remove it, it had died. It didn't seem to have any blood on it, so I don't think she broke the skin, so I think all the blood I saw on her and the deck was her own!

 

Thanks for the response. It's good to be reassured!

[a_daerr]

A wild animal outdoors isn't even close to the same thing as an indoor only cat who is clearly part of the family.

 

Your wise to keep up being vigilant, but don't buy into the nonsense about "once they've tasted blood...."

 

I assume her rabies shot is current (although squirrels rarely carry rabies according to my vet)?

 

This. All of this is correct. Henry and Truman are both very "cat safe" dogs. They have never had any issues with our three cats. They caught a squirrel earlier this summer. I didn't see it happen, but my neighbor said they were both carrying it around in their mouths and throwing it up in the air (like their toys). Wild animals outside and pets in the home are apples and oranges. You're good for being vigilant (you can see in my previous post that I let my guard down too soon with my foster grey and he killed our kitten). But I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

ETA: After our squirrel incident, I took Henry to the vet because he had some cuts on his muzzle. They used surgical glue on one of the cuts, and that was about it. Unless it persistently bleeds, and assuming Zoe is current on rabies, you should be fine. Like Susan said, squirrels rarely have rabies.

Edited September 9, 2012 by a_daerr

[mychip1]

I would not consider JJ cat safe...but he coexists with Irwin and is getting sort of friendly. However, they are never unsupervised together. The boyz are muzzled when I am out and baby gates are raised a bit off the ground so cat can go upstairs to get away from them during the day....they get the two downstairs bedrooms to themselves! When I am home and they are interacting, I am cautious.....though, JJ is beginning to understand that Irwin belongs here. Cats outside are a totally different story!!!

[Guest OPointyDog]

Thanks, yes, Zoe is a bit more like JJ, I think. She tested cat safe at the kennel, but she turns out to be more in the "correctable" category. She really liked to chase them when we first got her, so we kept her behind baby gates or in her crate when we couldn't watch her. We've also been working hard with correcting and redirecting her when she pays too much attention to them. Now we're a little more relaxed, especially when she's asleep (which is a lot!). She only just turned 3 so still has a lot of energy. She's always crated when we're asleep or not home, but we'll keep an eye on her.

 

What had me worried was that right after the squirrel incident, she was staring and blowing in her cheeks at one of the cats through the baby gate. I think she was just overstimulated at the time. I was thinking about Alicia's post about her kitten when Zoe did that, though, I have to say.

 

Good news this evening when we came home from our walk, though - she walked through the mud room with both cats milling around without even looking at them.

 

Thanks everyone for the good thoughts and advice.

[JohnF]

Every dog handles it differently. My Peggy is very driven so that if she catches a squirell or a hedgehog she will obsess over it for the rest of the night and well into the next day. She was said to be cat and even ferret friendly (maybe she was in their indoor setting).

It is the period of obsession that poses the threat to your cats if they dart, you may need to be careful for the next 2 or 3 days. No ifs, no buts, a dog is a dog and will do dog things beyond human conditioning. It isn't like 'getting a taste for blood', it's kind of like a kid anticipating Christmas when it's a day or two away.

 

And although Peggy killed the squirrell, the squirrel world got her back because about a month later she chased one and injured her back knee on a memorial stone. $500+ of surgery that cost me and she's never going to be off leash there again either.