Hope Is Weird, Part Two

So here's the story that prompted the post about Hope's weirdness in the first place.

Back in early October, you loyal readers (I know there are just so many of you) will remember that I blogged about our dear little Hope's confusion when her brother was running around the yard tracking the scent of a small animal that she couldn't see. Well just a couple of weeks after that, we let the dogs outside one night for their final potty break, and much to our chagrin they kicked up a rabbit in the yard, and of course proceeded to bay and bawl at the top of their lungs and chase the rabbit running for his life. Now because it was dark, we're not exactly sure how this happened, but Hope actually caught this poor rabbit in her mouth during the chase. Thankfully, she let it go, either because she wanted to chase it some more or because it wriggled free, and the little bunny found a way to escape from the yard. As you can imagine, after this excitement, neither Hope nor Celtic had any interest in coming inside and going to bed, and yet we didn't realize at the time what a life changing experience this would be for our little girl. Apparently, Hope has now realized her purpose in life--her raison d'être, if you will. She now knows what it means to be a scenthound.

Although rather uneventful, here is a little video that I shot over the weekend so that I could capture her quirky behavior and share her new favorite pastime. It's just with our small digital camera, so the quality isn't that great. In the first one I shot I used the zoom, which made it even grainier, so this is video clip number 2.



At first, Hope's new love of being active in the great outdoors seemed like a good thing. She is getting exercise and clearly enjoying herself, and we can handle walking out to the yard to drag her in on occasion. However, on Saturday night, after she'd spent many hours of the day with her nose to the ground, we noticed something horrible:

Look at the poor girl's snout! She's become such an obsessed sniff-o-holic that she has rubbed her face raw. :( Now we're having to let her out for just a few minutes at a time, forcing her back inside when she won't come willingly. Our silly girl has gone from being completely uninterested in tracking wildlife to completely obsessive-compulsive in a matter of weeks. She spent almost the entire evening standing at the back door, crying to be let out. She's definitely a strange ranger about some things, but as everyone who has met her knows, her sweetness certainly outweighs her weirdness!