There's a monster in the fireplace!

[eric]

So I'm dozing away this morning - wife has already left for work (I get up an hour later) when I'm woken up by our GSD Travis jumping on the bed and plopping down beside me and resting his head on my side.

"That's a bit weird" I think to myself drowsily. Travis rarely sleeps on the bed. He

[izzy]

Great story, now i know how to handle a big GSD. :lol:

[pollysmith]

That is so funny! I wonder how My dogs wold react to a bird in the fireplace.

[ObedienceGrrl]

[quote name='izzy']Great story, now i know how to handle a big GSD. :lol:[/quote]

You can bring a balloon into my house and then rob me blind.

Hunter is VERY afraid of balloons. And Dakota would still be asleep.

[behle]

Wonderful story! I could see it all happening.

Be glad you have dogs instead of c@ts. :o :o :o

I had a c@t once that literally tore apart two rooms trying to catch a sparrow that had made its way into our house one night. Woke up to the c@t running over my face.... It was all downhill from there.

Unlike your great story....mine ended sadly. :cry:

[courtnek]

I hate to say it Eric, but Free woulda had a field day. not only would she not have waken me up, she would have destroyed the fireplace glass and gone INTO the fireplace after the bird.Once she had caught it (and she would) she would have brought it, very dead, and presented it to me.

I had a bird fly in through the back door one summer. Free chased it all over the house, even knocking the couch over to get at it perched on the drapes rail. she was always one step ahead of me and ignored everything I said, until she caught it as it swooped low to fly away. this dog can jump 3 feet straight up into the air. she had destroyed most of the living room in the process. including breaking a few lamps....

she got it, and then proudly presented it to me. it was too late to save the poor thing after all that......

[eric]

I'm surprised Zeke was able to stay as calm as he did. He jumped a few times into the air, but nothing like you describe in terms of jumping on furniture and stuff. When the bird landed on the screen, it was in clear sight of everybody and the window in question is behind our TV so I was immediately afraid Zeke was going to get in behind the TV and damage something.

Fortunately, since the bird was just hanging there I decided to take a second and let things cool down. I was able to get Zeke into a sit-stay, and then the bird just let me walk up and grab it without a fuss (which was surprising).

Zeke can be a real killer though. He's the first dog I've known that kills snakes.

[quote name='courtnek']I hate to say it Eric, but Free woulda had a field day. not only would she not have waken me up, she would have destroyed the fireplace glass and gone INTO the fireplace after the bird.Once she had caught it (and she would) she would have brought it, very dead, and presented it to me.
[/quote]

[Yoladybug]

Uggg...that would have been my nightmare. I HATE birds. In fact, I'm kinda scared of them. When you were talking about reaching in and grabbing it, I couldn't believe it! Unfortunately, Abby is also scared of birds. I guess dogs and owners do end up resembling each other :lol: Anyway, good work handling that situation. I would have lost it!

[eric]

Its really not that bad once you get them in your hands. They seem to calm down once you get them all snuggled in, and the one yesterday actually let me stroke his back.

You just have to be careful when you initially grab them because they tend to flap their wings a bit and its pretty easy to injure them. Once you get the wings folded you just cup them in your hands.

I'd be alot more worried about picking up a mammal just for fear of being bitten. I had one of these birds "bite" me once; all they do is grab your finger in their beak. It doesn't hurt at all, they just aren't strong enough.

Here's a pic of the first one we had to get out; another grackle. You can sort of see the purple and green colours I was talking about in the picture. They are actually quite pretty.

[img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0UwAAALcYfPWrgIZ4v1gw*foM6OExin0ytnmGoQ!opkkAhYfoSkBv8a0h7xq*XyIfovCpvvJPEl0831Wb63RiJGtJoWYNP85fRuZUgV!sjCzGBxmmgRcxHQH3vw0yeOJ9/EPSN0046.JPG?dc=4675516963244201459[/img]

[imported_Debbie]

:lol: Good story Eric !!
Great pic of your monster.........errrr, I mean bird !!! :wink:

[imported_Kat]

lol I can picture Travis the big woose petrified and peeking behind a door :lol:

[Mutt_Lady]

Whoa, strange.

This is a really weird coincidence because this happened to me yesterday. Stephanie, Kyra, Elmer and I were cornered in the den until Kevin got home because we were paranoid that a wee little bird was going to peck us.

I'm glad that you caught the "monster"!! :wink:

[DogPaddle]

What an adventure.

I'm not sure how Kavik or Zaphod would respond to that. Zaphod watches birds intently outside, even ones very high up, it seems like he just likes watching them. Kavik will chase anything that moves fast but its hard to predict what will spook him. My brother's c@t would be oblivious. My c@t would have fun or lunch - she used to bring live bats up from the crawlspace in our old old old house and then let them loose so she could catch them again.

[ESSlover]

Carson.. our great ESS.. the notified bird dog.. has no intrest in birds at all. :o :lol: He prefers things on 4 legs.. unless they're little dogs. Then he's scared of them, tail (attempting to get) between his legs. Its rather pathetic actually...

What a fun morning! Must have a nice strong bed, with 200 plus pounds of doggy on it! :lol: What brave GSD's you have.. no need to worry about that, eh?! :P :lol: