My oldest stepson is engaged so we thought it would be nice to invite him, his fiancé and her parents over for dinner. We’ve been planning this for a couple of months, mostly because it was so hard to get everyone’s schedules coordinated.
Needless to say, there was a lot of build-up by the time this happened. I’m not sure who was more nervous—me and Bill, my stepson and his fiancé or her parents.
But it seemed to go well. Not a lot of awkward conversation, everyone was friendly and we had a nice dinner.
Our future in-laws are dog people, so after dinner when we were sitting out back having coffee, they asked if we could let Penny and Gracie outside. We had kept them in our bedroom all night to keep the chaos under control, so they needed to be let out.
The dogs came out, and Penny made the rounds greeting everyone, but Gracie immediately ran to the back fence and locked in on something in the dark. She stared at the wall, and whined and paced. I figured she saw a possum or squirrel but whatever it was, was out of her reach.
Except. It wasn’t.
It was a mouse, and it stupidly made a break for it. Right toward Gracie. It must has thought it was faster than the big dog. It wasn’t.
I heard a squeal, and saw Gracie shake her head. That was the end of Mickey.
Gracie ran toward me with the mouse in her mouth, totally proud. She laid the thing at my feet like it was a gift just for me.
I screamed.
She picked it up and brought it over to my stepson’s future mother-in-law.
Thank god she laughed.
Penny got in on the action and the two of them played catch with the mouse until Gracie grabbed it and ran into the corner of the yard to finish her treat.
Samoyeds have a hunting instinct. Callie, our first Sammy, was the original Great White Huntress. She used to lie down under a nest the birds built in the eaves of the house and stare up, waiting patiently for a baby bird to fall out. A couple of months before she passed away from kidney failure, she wasn’t feeling great but that instinct still kicked in. We were working in the front yard and all of a sudden Callie leapt out of dead sleep, jumped up and caught a blue jay out of the air and decimated it. It was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen.
So after Gracie ate the mouse for dessert, the party broke up.
I’ll have to remember that trick the next time a party runs too long.
Our dogs used to love to ‘hunt’ too! So creepy. But I always felt bad being too horrified in front of them because they were so pleased with themselves and wanted us to be impressed too. The worst was one time when one of our dogs caught an armadillo and was tossing it around like a soccer ball. Ugh…I didn’t go out in the backyard for like a month without having traumatic flashbacks.
Hey — good food, good conversation and some good, edgy entertainment…what more could you ask from a dinner party?
You tell that story so well Mo. Great writing. I would haave screamed too. Have me over, but don’t pull that trick on me, I’ll know.