Ratso

Maji and I have this unique relationship where if I ask her to kill something she does. It's quite surreal and I'm not sure what past life connection that has to do with, but sometimes it's scary.

This particular rat was out while I was gardening. I don't like rats and I don't like to garden without Maji on duty.

Since she's been honing her rat killing skills, she's also killing more squirrels. This isn't what I had in mind when I told her, one quiet evening, that I'd like her to start killing for me.

These skills did come in handy for a mercy kill the other weekend. We went hiking at Hood, Satchel got in on the action and caught a chipmunk in his jaws. I screamed and he dropped it, but it was still alive and suffering. Not sure what to do, we continued hiking. I asked Maji to please kill the chipmunk on the way back and she found it halfway up a tree, still hurt.

But I tend to freak out when I see this and yelled, so she dropped it again. The poor guy wasn't dead yet, so Dave drove a piece of wood through it's heart. This was a sad day which I made better by drinking 2 margarettas.

The next time Maji went after a squirrel I learned my lesson and didn't yell at her after she caught it in her mouth. I let her kill completely.

And this behavior has to change. So far I think it has. I've been talking to Maji about the difference between rats and squirrels and to only kill rats in our yard. Everything else can be chased up a tree. The little girl seems to be listening.