Ashley caught a vole! I wouldn’t let her eat it, because who knows what parasites she’d get from eating a raw wild animal, but she took it very well when I made her drop the vole.

It seemed to have survived being in Ashley’s mouth for several seconds. So Ashley will get to try to catch it again!

A black dog with its snout in the leaves of last summer's flower garden

At 10:00 AM on the first Tuesday of the month, the county tests its emergency sirens.

Ashley with her head tipped back on mouth in a little circle, howling along with the emergency sirens

The very first month we had Ashley, we happened to be walking right under one of the sirens at the moment it started up. Ashley started howling along with it, which made me laugh. And Ashley looked a little embarrassed, thinking she’d done something wrong. I didn’t want that, so I started howling as well.

Since then, Ashley and I (and Jackie when she’s with us) have howled along with the emergency sirens every month.

Our neighbors have not complained, although I suppose they think we’re rather weird.