tools on the farm

[J. Scott Hanes]

On the Ohio farm I grew up on, we had two dogs, a border collie mix (Pepper) and a terrier mix (Patches). On two or three ocassions, they would catch a groundhog away from its holes to have a Battle Royale! One would bite at the rear and try to distract it long enough for the other to get the kill bite behind the neck. These battles would go on for hours sometimes; exhaustion often set in and at times all three combatants would just stop, lay flat on their bellies and pant for 5 or so minutes. The groundhog probably figured it could not get away so just took the time to gather a second wind. Eventually the dogs got the advantage and finished off the battle. They were undefeated in the tag-team division!