Instinct

[ellenmillion]

So last night, Velcro escaped.

She's been hovering around the door when it's open, gazing out in great interest, but not making much movement past the sill. It helps that the stairs have been demolished, so it's a bit of a leap to the wobbly stump we're climbing into the house on.

But last night, with a burst of courage, she leapt out of the door while Jake and I were admiring our pretty new house and bounded off towards the woods.

With cries of "No, Velcro!" and "Bad cat!" we tried to corral her, and Norway thought this looked like entirely too much fun.

Now, normally, a 100 lb dog who decides to join a game of chase-the-cat is Bad News. It was with sinking heart that I watched him leap into motion - I was sure that poor Velcro was going to be chased right out into the woods to hide for a week. (Or until she got hungry. Or eaten by a fox, like my last cat.)

But a) that dog can corner the way a 100 lb dog should not be able to corner. And b) He is a herder at heart.

He knew exactly where the cat ought to be (inside) and he knew exactly how to get her there.

Velcro dodges! Norway corners! Velcro switches directions to dash to the back of the house! Norway gets ahead of her! (Best game in the whole world!) Velcro runs! Norway angles to cut her off! He never once went after her, only went where she shouldn't be going and made sure she didn't.

Before I could even panic, the cat was leaping back into the house to hide in shame and Norway was looking entirely satisfied and pleased with himself. We could not heap enough praise upon him.

Comments

[renatus.livejournal.com]

Aww! Good Norway! What an excellent dog.

[valdary.livejournal.com]

Well done Norway for saving you a lot of worry.

When my rabbit Dorrie used to run away I used to send Tanith, the cat I had then, out after him. He was passionately in love with her and the minute he saw the cat, she would bolt for home and he would chase her, and then it was just a case of rescuing the poor cat before he grabbed her by the neck and mounted her.

[datalore.livejournal.com]

And the cat let him do that? I know it's a power game with bunnies, but I didn't think a cat would stand for it! :)

[valdary.livejournal.com]

I think it was maybe down to his absolute self belief.
He chased every cat he saw, and 99% of them ran for their lives. Its just not the behaviour they expected from a rabbit. He wasn't even a large greed, just a small black and white Dutch rabbit.

[valdary.livejournal.com]

She would bite and scratch if he caught her, but she preferred to run rather than be caught,

(and I meant breed not greed)

[datalore.livejournal.com]

Hilarious! In our last bunch of fostered baby bunnies, one baby male started mounting everything in sight until I pushed down his head when he tried it, then he didn't try it any more.

[octoberdreaming.livejournal.com]

Yay, Norway! Bad Velcro!! Oh, man - I dread my cats escaping - I have nightmares about it. Scary!

[uneide.livejournal.com]

XD XD Your pets, Ellen, are made of PURE AWESOME. Norway is my hero. ;)

[tigerpixieart.livejournal.com]

Wow! Great story! Bad Velcro! Good boy Norway!! :D

[jemstone.livejournal.com]

Good dog. :)

[autumnstar1.livejournal.com]

Yay Norway! So glad this ended well for you (and velcro). Gotta love those herding instincts...well, sometimes anyway.

[tarlia.livejournal.com]

I feel that I should applaud here.

[rendergirl.livejournal.com]

What a good dog!!!

[maleficently.livejournal.com]

Yay Norway!! Sheba has been showing an evergrowing fascination with the Outside and I live in fear for the day she decides to bolt, especially with how long the pizza guy takes sometimes to gimme my food.

I has no Norway to set my heart at ease!

[kittrel.livejournal.com]

So herding cats IS possible! :D

That's a funny story, good puppy.

[rhiamon.livejournal.com]

Gooooooood, Norway! Good doggie! Who's a good dog? WHO'S a GOOD dog!! Yeeeees, Norway, that's who! Goooooood doggie! :)

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

What is Norway, breed-wise?

Also, your cat is named *Velcro*. You win at life.

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

Norway is mostly newfoundland, with definite dashes of... something else. His previous owners thought maybe black lab?

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

Oh, what a relief. Good Norway. :)

[metasilk.livejournal.com]

Yay for Norway!
Herding dog? What sort? I thought from my memory of a pic he was rather akita-looking, but it was a snowy pic...

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

He's a newfoundland, mostly. Some kind of herd dog must contribute to the rest of him!

[pixiewildflower.livejournal.com]

Good doggie!

[frigg.livejournal.com]

Good boy!

[dollraves.livejournal.com]

YAY!!! Norway! Thank the stars for the herders!

[(Anonymous)]

what a good dog! i bet he got a treat for that one.

[selinafenech.livejournal.com]

Wow, what a good dog! I had a similar experience this week, sans herding dog... My kitty's an indoor only, sometimes I take her outside for "guided excursions" if I'm going to be out gardening as well and can keep an eye on her, but since moving, she's expressed far too much sign of bolting, with many tempting other cats and birds around the house.
But the other night she got outside, and embarassingly, I didn't even notice. She bolted out while we had a door open carrying in some large furniture at night... A couple of hours later (during a particularly scary moment of Supernatural!) the front door starts bashing and scraping. After a few freak out moments I quickly put it together and realised the cat wasn't inside anywhere and went and brought her in. I was so happy that despite whereever she'd been exploring in those few hours at night, she had the good sense to come back to the front door... and knock... to get back in where she was supposed to be.

[datalore.livejournal.com]

LOL, that is great!!! :)