Re: Dogs and cats as vegetarians?

This is just another example of how unfortunate it is that that dogs and cats (and the whole animal kingdom for that matter) do not speak human. Depsite our frequently over-inflated opinions of our own species, we humans don't do very well speaking animal neither, be it dog, cat, duck, bird, bear, dear, you name it, so this puts us - humans and the animal kingdom, on somewhat even terms. As it is we humans are left with using human methods and applying human thoughts to what it is that dogs and cats may be trying to communicate to us while we observe their presence in and around our lives.

Last night just after sundown, dog and I were sitting on the front porch just looking & listening to the early evening as we often do. Being cricket season, we had been enjoying several minutes of naturally noisy quiet when all of a sudden, dog vaults off the porch and races towards the back yard for reasons that I did not immediately know. I suspected he was chasing a bunny as there are a dozen or so just in our small neck of the neighborhood. By the time I was able to get up and look around the corner of the porch in an effort to find out why, it was just in time to see dog come to a screaching stop at the apple tree. I guess it would be one thing if dog had stopped from having given up pursuit of the critter in order to munch on one of the many fallen apples now scattered around the yard. He did not. This was merely a pause. The critter he was pursuing had momentarily stopped by the apple tree, possibly to quickly gather it's wits. This pause lasted a second or two, then the chase continued right on past the apple tree as the critter made a dash for the thicket in the far back yard. Just as it was skirting within a few feet to the one side of the garden, the chased ended. Unfortunately (for the critter, at least) dog caught up to and was going through the process of preparing for the kill. BTW, while dog was using his quite capable jaws & teeth flipping and flopping critter through the air preparing for the kill bite, he did so simultaneously while many fresh vegetables lay a mere few feet from his exceptionally capable olfactory senses. Be this as it may, I am not sure whether or not my dog noticed these fresh veggies OR perhaps noticed but did not care seeing that he seemed quite intent on killing this 4 legged critter. To repeat, dog does not speak human, but neither does master speak dog, so I only have my observations, hunches and suspicions to go on. My suspicions are, dog would have killed the critter and then promptly commenced with eating it had I not intervened. Intervene I did.

Having chased dog back towards the front porch, I turned to look back out of concern for the critter. The day's light was nearly all gone, however I could barely make out what appeared to be a foot-long or so of furry 4-legged stuff, probably a young Ground Hog, that I feared dead. This mass of critter stuff then revived from it's prone state enough to then scamper off into the nearby thicket. Had I allowed this situation to more naturally find & reach it's own course & conclusion, I'm pretty sure dog would have eventually killed THEN promptly eaten that critter all the while apples, tomatoes, beans, potatoes and the like beckoned to dog, unheeded, from a few feet away. Tweet