Dragon in the Garden

It's definitely Spring around me, with the creatures out and about playing their meet up and mingle roles. Sadly one such creature met its end this morning - victim of our ravaging hounds. It was a bearded dragon, and our 3 pharaoh hounds hunted it out of its hiding spot, and proceeded to do what hounds do to their prey. The pharaoh hound is a sight hound and it has a particularly strong prey drive, leading to the inevitable chase and bite results.

The lizard has been hanging around one particular spot in our yard, I think. The dogs were all going mad along the fence line a couple of days ago, trying to get at something, but not able to reach it in its hiding place. I thought it may have been a scaled creature, and hoped it wasn’t a snake. That creature was probably the one they caught this morning. The dogs caught it several metres away from the where’d been hunting previously.

This event is a needed reminder to me – Summer is on its way, and where I live, Summer means snakes. The snake most likely to show up near where I live would be a poisonous one, most like the Brown snake. These snakes are well known in Australia as ones that bite and kill many household pets, especially dogs and cats. They have been known to kill people too, if a person has been bitten and hasn’t been able to get treatment with an antivenin. We’ve had snakes at our place, and in the surrounding area. The snakes worry me, both for my own safety, and the safety of my dogs.

Lizards, while still being reptiles, don’t scare me. They don’t have fangs that can bite me and inject venom into my body. I’m sure a bite from a lizard would be far from pleasant, but it wouldn’t be deadly. I like the lizards being around the place, it appeals to my love of creatures. I may not want to cuddle a lizard, but I certainly like to see them living and doing well.

It was sad to see a native species fall victim to our dogs. Nature is not kind. The dogs left the 'finishing off' of the lizard to my poor husband. Once the lizard stopped fighting, the dogs lost interest, leaving the poor lizard mauled, but still alive. Killing it was the kindest thing to do ... Sometimes I hate things my dogs do.

Living with animals, both pets and wild life, can involve death though. When you bring animals into your life, you must be prepared to do the right thing when the time comes. The time came for this bearded dragon, and I’m sad about that, but glad my husband was able to do what had to be done.



#_life
#_kindness
#_nature
#_death
#_euthanasia


%selfavenue