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| Chloe catches another Whiptail. |
The title of this story "Chloe 4 | Whiptails 0", almost sounds like a baseball score, but I can assure you that it doesn't have anything to do with the game. Rather this is the number of New Mexico Whiptails that Chloe has caught just this spring. I don't know if the Whiptails are getting slower, or Chloe has become more cunning in her hunting skills. Knowing how fast these little creatures are as they dart over rocks and plants, I would suspect that Chloe has learned a few tricks in the three years that she's been stalking these micro dinosaurs.
The Whiptails are common to the southwest high desert region and into the northern reaches of old Mexico. They primarily support their eating habit by dining on the local insect population that makes them actually handy to have around. Unfortunately for us, Chloe doesn't see it that way and thinks they make excellent game for hunting along with the birds and the rabbits.
Now, I'm not saying I condone Chloe's actions, since a cocker spaniel is a hunting dog by breed, and you're not going to easily stop a behavior that is in their heritage. But her act of bringing them into the house and dropping them off on the carpet floor after the catch I could certainly do without. Obviously for Chloe it's all about the chase, as she doesn't set out to hurt the Whiptail.
In fact the Spaniel instinctively knows how to retrieve small game within the clutches of their mouth without squeezing down and damaging the catch. Chloe's inquisitiveness however gets the better of her as she often likes playing with her prey in an attempt to engage a response. Unfortunately once caught these tiny Whiptails are no match for a very playful cocker spaniel, and in other scores it's "Chloe 1 | Birds 0", but that's a story for another entry.
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| Chloe tries to play with this Whiptail. |
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| Going nose-to-nose with a Whiptail. |
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