The unpleasant side of dog ownership...

We all know how nice and friendly dogs can be, but we sometimes forget that they're another species that we've adapted to fit in with our lifestyle. We often forget the primal instincts that dogs have, especially when it comes to survival.

We play with Lupus every day, with a combination of soft fluffy toys that he enjoys chasing, tossing around and chewing. Unfortuately, when he meets a small, fluffy animal that makes similar squeeking noises he doesn't realise that it's a real animal.

A birds nest fell in to the garden at the weekend, leaving three Starling chicks in the garden. The first I realised was when the noise caught my ear, and I looked out and saw the parent birds frantically trying to protect their young from a maniac Husky in full-on 'play mode'. I eventually managed to get the chick out of his mouth, but it was beyond recovery and had to be 'put down' in as humane a manner possible. I found another chick in the same condition, which also had to be put out of its misery, but I managed to rescue a third chick and put it out of harms way.

I won't make any jokes about 'killing two birds with...' as it's not something I enjoyed doing. It certainly livened up what would otherwise have been a rather dull afternoon looking at website code, and made me learn something new about life with a Husky.

So, beneath that lovely cuddly 'wouldn't hurt a fly' exterior there's a wild animal with hunting instincts that date back thousands of years... so it's hardly a surprise that the few years (in comparison) that dogs have been living side by side with Man haven't removed this essential element of their character. This is perhaps something that more people should remember more often, but I wouldn't change it for anything.