Groundhog day

We've experienced MAJOR CATASTROPHE tonight. After a nice day (Micah's basketball team won the championship at the tournament, tonight - hard to believe with a 1-9 regular season status), the boys decided to play outside until the last ray of sun shone. When darkness began to creep in, I opened the door to call the boys in and was met with screaming hysterics.

"Mommy! Come quick! Dahlia has a baby groundhog and she won't let it go!" (For anyone reading this who doesn't know, Dahlia is our 14 year old dog. Don't miss the key words there - 14 years old. I mean to tell you, the girl takes a full minute to sit down these days not to mention getting back up again.)

Well, what was I to do? I didn't even have my shoes on. There was no way I could have gotten myself shod and run the 100 yards or so in time. And if I had, miraculously, gotten myself there in time - then what? Do you think Dahlia would have obediently dropped the groundhog and licked it's wounds? (In case you don't know the answer to that, ask my mom. She lost a chicken or two at the teeth of my sweet pooch. She's also convinced that my girl killed her neighbor's goat. But I don't believe her. And ok, there's the time she chased the cows. And Mom's cat. Oh, and she kind of bullied Mom's dog a little, too.)

So anyway, I yelled for the boys to just come inside. I figured mending broken hearts was easier than interceding with my dog and her prey.

When they finally did get inside, they were visibly upset. Apparently, there was a nest of baby groundhogs. Micah says there were about five of them, but Chase maintains that there were no less than eight. Chase said Dahlia "chomped all of them, gulped some of them down and left blood everywhere." Micah said the babies were all screaming. Both boys said they tried to get Dahlia to stop and she wouldn't.

Yikes.

Chase is the most upset. He vowed never to hug Dahlia again. Again if anyone doesn't know, Chase LOVES Dahlia. He has all of his life. Sometimes he loves her too much (you know that old Mellencamp song, "sometimes love don't feel like should, you make it hurt so good." Mellencamp probably had an entirely different meaning - but I think that is how Dahlia must feel about Chase, sometimes). Now Chase is disenchanted with Dahlia. I guess he feels betrayed by her.

Bless their little hearts. I feel bad for the babies, too - I'm glad I didn't see it happen. I suppose this is the boys' first brush with brutality. It's a harsh and vicious world out there.

So Dahlia is in the doghouse (figuratively, we don't actually have a real one).