Uses of a terrier.

As well as providing basic entertainment for us, and being very nice to come home to, we have found two very good uses for our small Tenterfield Terrier, Tammy-the-rat.

The first came about when we took her with us on a visit to Frances' Mum (the original owner of the beast) who now lives in a residential facility in Somerton, South Australia). We expected Frances' Mum to be pleased to see her, but were very pleasantly surprised to see how much the other residents enjoyed her. Two of the gentlemen in particular seemed to greatly enjoy giving her a cuddle, and all seemed pleased to see her.

The second use is closer to home - and probably more traditional. I was doing something indoors when Frances reported that she had been in my shed - and I cannot really think of a more terrifying set of words - and found "evidence" of mice. In fact once the light was turned on it was barely possible to ignore the:
  • for very polite people - droppings;
  • for scientists - faeces; and
  • for those from Texas - whole lotta mouse poop.
So I went and got the dog and started to explore the shed habitat. Eventually a mouse emerged and got a 12 inch start on the dog which was just enough for it to get into further cover. Unfortunately - for the mouse - the canine honker tracked it down and the second chomp was very direct. To my surprise Tammy didn't eat the corpse, but just gave it a real good chewing.

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