Instinct

The most amazing thing about having a litter of puppies is watching the mother dog's instinct kick into high gear.

My dogs are hunters.

What do those two statements have to do with each other?

Tonight Aliy brought both into play.

My dogs are not sport hunters. They don't catch and release. They don't just catch and kill. They catch and eat. Mice. Ground Squirrels. Rabbits. Skunks.

They also don't share. Whoever catches it gets to eat it. Except, apparently, when maternal instinct comes into play.

Tonight just before I went to bed I checked on the puppies one last time. Aliy had just come in from outside and had gone to check on the puppies as well. Or so I thought. What she was actually doing was delivering dinner. I found a freshly killed ground squirrel on the floor next to the ex-pen where the puppies are now housed.

This is nothing new. When Aliy had her first litter she brought her kids multiple ground squirrels. It's the kind of thing I should have been expecting, given what Raven did last year. But you tend to block things like this out of your mind, you know?

Under normal cirumstances there would have been no consideration given to sharing with anyone. But those maternal instincts are so strong that they override all normal behavior and cause a dog to bring in such a prize and just give it away. But only to her kids.

How cool is that?

Edited to add: NO!! I didn't let the puppies have the ground squirrel!!!