Be Vewy Vewy Quiet; I'm Hunting Wabbits

Last Friday, I was cleaning the kitchen when suddenly out of nowhere Celtic came flying through the room to the back door. When I went to open the door for him, I saw what he had seen from the bedroom window that had piqued his interest: a rabbit was sitting out by the basketball court. When I opened the sliding glass door for him, instead of sprinting straight out to begin the chase, he instead decided to practice his stalking skills. This was something I'd never seen him do with a rabbit before, but I knew he had the ability because he used to stalk Steeler all the time. Even when Steeler had quit playing their game of chase, Celtic would position himself around a corner, frozen solid with just his head peeking out, waiting for Steeler to wander by so he could pounce. I think he'd never practiced these skills on a rabbit before because there was normally another dog also racing to the prey. Since Hope was still inside and unaware of the backyard visitor, Celtic finally had the opportunity to do his best Elmer Fudd impression.

I stood there and watched him as he tiptoed (as much as a dog is capable of tiptoeing) across the patio. He was hardly moving at all at first, and after about 30 seconds I wondered how long he would hold his position. I reached for the Palm Pilot in my purse, with which I snapped a couple of pictures using its low-res camera. Celtic remained in his stalking pose, so I ran downstairs to get the real camera, and made it back upstairs to find Celtic still inching his way to the yard. I sat down on the floor and started snapping some shots through the glass:

And he's off!!!

While I'm slightly embarrassed that our yard consists almost entirely of clover (and that it wasn't mowed because that was the week Chad was in Boston), I am kind of proud of the pictures (note the rabbit), and I'm certainly proud of my little puppy's patience! :)