Sammy the bird-dog

I've been super lazy tonight, calling my cake decorating instructor to ask if it was really necessary for me to bring in a cake tomorrow (she let me off the hook--yay!) and just rolling up some tortillas with cheese in the middle along with corn for dinner. I was just settling down with my truffle recipe book when I heard a commotion outside. Sammy was scratching on the sliding glass door and I could hear him running around, toenails scraping over the concrete patio. Thinking he was just chasing another moth, I looked up and was horrified by what I saw. He was chasing some sort of flying animal! I jumped up from my couch in an attempt to save the poor bat/bird from my animal's naughty teeth. As I opened the door to yell at the mutt, I saw a flurry of wings and a shower of feathers. When I got to Sammy, he was spitting out a mouthful of feathers. "SAMMY!" I yelled. "NO!" He gives me this look like, "What mom, I was just playing!" 

Too late, I realized that I had just opened up the closest escape route for the poor tortured bird. "Oh my God," I thought to myself. "Did it get in?" I could see the reflection of the poor shaken bird beating itself against my walls. Crap. How do I get it out? I put Sammy in his box, which resulted in a lot of whining, as he didn't think it was fair that mommy got to play with the fun toy when he couldn't. I left the sliding glass door open and attempted to herd the bird out by waving my arms. I closed my bedroom door and turned the lights off, hoping he would head outside towards the open door, illuminated by the porch light. But instead, he flew into the office, the one door I forgot to shut. It took me ten minutes to herd him out of there with the broom. He actually got onto the broom and I carried him out that way, hoping to make it to the door. But he flew off and proceeded to fly against the ceiling and walls, leaving bits of feather everywhere. It took me another five minutes to finally shoo him out the door. Mind you, Sammy was whining and scratching at his box door this whole time! When the task was done, I was still so mad with him and left him in there for longer as punishment. I still have bits of feather on my ceiling! And on the porch--it looks like a bird massacre just happened outside!

This is not the first time Sammy pulled this crap with a bird. When he was a puppy he discovered an injured bird in our backyard. Jon had let him out to pee and came back to the bed. We heard a persistent squawking for a while, so I finally checked out the window to see what that was all about. I saw Sammy curiously following and sniffing this poor bird that couldn't fly and was trying to warn Sammy to stay away. I ran outside with Jon close behind and we proceeded to chase Sammy, all the while yelling "NO! LEAVE IT!" Of course he evaded us like a pro--little shit is fast! When we thought we had him cornered, he first looked at me and then at Jon, and lunged toward the bird to catch it in his mouth. At this point I was beginning to despair, fretting about the poor bird in my puppy's mouth. He ran circles around the yard, escaping from our reach, all the while holding the squawking bird in his mouth. I was surprised the poor thing didn't have a heart attack from all that! We finally got him and made him drop the bird. Surprisingly, the bird was fine and walked away through the gate Jon opened up for him. I think Sammy must have been holding him very gently.

I just checked outside and that little bird was just chilling on our patio furniture. I had to put shoes on and chase him out of my yard. I do not want a repeat, thank you very much!