one ear stands guard while she sleeps
photographs, animals, dogs, potcake, toronto, tom dickson, dkzn, sherwood, island girl
For eleven days in November, while her owners, Bob and Liz, vacationed in Florida, Island Girl vacationed with me. These shots were taken over three of those days on our way through Sherwood Park to the Blythwood Ravine.
winter vacation (nov 2008)
Island Girl’s feral beginnings manifest in hunting skills few other dogs possess and I’m forever having to warn squirrels of her presence, usually with a loud hiss. Those she catches, she kills and painstakingly buries, taking 5-10 minutes to select the best spot. She also buries what other dogs have killed and left behind.
Occasionally, on spotting a squirrel in a tree, she’ll repeatedly leap straight up at it, barking. Early on, I assumed she was doing so in vain, but I was wrong. Several times, now, I’ve watched a squirrel tumble out of the tree to its doom.
bow-wow powwow
In the absence of squirrels, roughhousing with other dogs is another of her passions and in this, too, she excels. As well as being faster and fitter than most, she's a superior tactician—while overtaking another dog on the run, for instance, she'll stick her nose beneath his belly and, with a toss of her head, flip him on his back and pin him. Floppy-eared opponents, she pulls to the ground by one ear.
