The best mouser I have ever seen was the best dog we have ever been blessed to live with. Berber was a chow mix. The people we got her from said she was a Saint Bernard and Chow mix. Well I know that she didn't have any SB in her. She might have been mixed with Newfoundland, but she wasn't very big for either breed. She was awesome though with the mouse hunting, and she had a high find and kill rate. I could put her on the hunt by just telling that I didn't like mouses.
Berber also saved the kids and me one night. The carbon monoxide detector started sounding an alarm at 2am in the morning, but I had never heard the sound before and I was kind of ignoring it until Berber came and nudged me a couple of times. So I got up to see why she wanted me up, and to figure out what was making the noise out in the kitchen/family room. The moment I stepped out of my bedroom I smelled natural gas. The rescue Komondor that we had at the time had managed to turn one of the knobs on the gas range on and Chuck had got the knob past the igniter, so the natural gas was free flowing into the house. I got it turn off, and opened up the doors and window very carefully. I got the fans turned on, but I could not get the carbon monoxide detector to stop sounding.
So I finally called the fire department. When they got here about 30 minutes after Berber woke me up. The fire departments carbon monoxide detectors were still registering that there was a buildup of CM in the house. The FD finally got the air exchanged out of the house for me with a really big exhaust fan. Unfortunately the fan they used was run on diesel and the diesel exhaust was coming into the house and smelled awful. After the FD left we went back to bed, and I had to leave all the doors and windows for the rest of the night.
If Berber hadn't insisted I get up and check things out, I am sure that the NG would have blown out about half of the house. There is a pilot light that was only 20 feet away from the range would have ignited the gas sooner or later. I miss Berber a lot. She died of bloat. I learned about bloat when we got Puppy, and had worried that the Komondork might get it, but I hadn't worried about Berber because she was so much smaller than the big dogs. We couldn't get her to the 24 hour Vet fast enough; she was brain dead by the time we got to the Vets. We had for Berber for 11 years, and I think she will always be the best dog I have ever known.
P.S.
The firemen here in Enumclaw are really cute at 2 in the morning.
My DD and I had a good time watching them that night.
There were some older ones for me, and some younger guy for DD.
I might be a bad girl for looking, but it was fun.
