Boxers vs. mole

Today I was walking in the yard of a neighbor across our dirt road with the dogs. He has a pond the dogs like to explore. Rocketdog, my blind Boxer, was checking out the yard while my two seeing Boxers played in the water. Rocket came across a mole out of its tunnel. He must have made a noise that alerted my seeing dogs, Sarah and Roscoe. This was a small animal, about the size of a hedge hog, with no eyes (or so it seemed), but a huge and nasty looking tooth filled mouth. Not to mention the claws.

We here in the country hire folks to trap moles. They make a mess of our yards. I am not so particular as my yard belongs to my dogs, but the neighbor across the dirt road has no pets. He does love my dogs, and has never minded when I let them play in his pond. I knew he would be grateful if I destroyed the mole.

I was afraid Rocketdog would get bit, so I put him on leash and let him away from the scene of Boxers vs. mole. Sarah, my 8 year old female, was the most aggressive. Roscoe wanted to paw it, but I could tell Sarah was looking for a kill.

Over a year ago, we came across a beaver next to the river that runs through my property. The beaver didn't run towards the river, but to the woods. I got Roscoe and Rocket away, but Sarah would not leave. When Roscoe and Rocket were safely in the fenced portion of my property, I went back to get Sarah. She had already killed the beaver.

I was very certain Sarah would kill the mole as well. She seemed to be going for the neck bite, but Roscoe would growl at her, as if to say, this is my toy.

After a few minutes, I searched for a large branch and killed it so it wouldn't suffer from the molestations of the dogs.

I don't like to kill animals. I am not a hunter, and would never date a mammal hunter. But I do kill mice, which are mammals, and I feel that a mole is little more than a nuisance varmint. If it lived to have a family, sooner or later the babies would cross the road and be digging up my yard. In fact, I already see tunnels of the relatives of my neighbor's dead mole.

It was interesting to see the interaction of the dogs with the mole. The mole was scary fierce to me with a huge mouth. (Although nothing close to a Boxer mouth.) I was surprised Roscoe didn't want Sarah to go for the kill. He is my alpha dog, but he kept his face far away from the critter, and just used his paws. Sarah, on the other hand, did try and take it by the neck, several times.

BTW, my dogs love my cat, and I am not sure they would even kill a rabbit. Once, I saw my Boxers get a bunny scared enough to lay down. They snuffled it, then left it to run off safely.

I apologize to the animal world that I killed a mole today. I don't understand why animals like moles and bats must have been boarded on Noah's ark.

Best regards, Diana Lynn of Sunrise River Boxers in MN

Hi Dianna - Good to see you writing again, have you been away?
From your description it would seem American moles are much bigger than European ones. Someone may correct me but the ones I've seen are between mice & rat size!! We have hundreds in our meadow and they cause me loads of grief when cutting the grass 'cos the lawnmower blades dig into the piles of dirt they produce while burrowing underground.
Our two Newfies love digging for moles, that makes it even worse 'cos I then have huge holes to avoid!!!

My lot are mole hunters too, Ellie has caught and killed a mole but I would say they are only large hamster size!

Thank you for your comments. I do believe the animal was a mole. Gophers did holes and tunnels, too, but they look more like squirrels, I think. This was a very ugly creature with big front feet and long claws. As I said, I didn't see any eyes, and I think I read somewhere that moles don't have a need for well developed eyesight as they spend most of their time underground.

I grew up in Saudi Arabia, and I am wondering if hedge hogs in KSA are bigger than the ones in Great Britain.

Perhaps that is the size discrepancy we are seeing here. It was bigger than a rat, but shorter. A regular ball of varmint.

I will write to the chat group I also belong to of people like me who grew up in KSA and see if they think our hedge hogs were bigger than in other countries. Best regards, Diana Lynn of Sunrise River Boxers in Stacy, MN