Molly's Nose

Molly is a mixed breed dog and I don't have a problem with that. I do not need AKC papers telling me that she is a great dog, my best friend, or a Diva but I do find myself speculating as to what kind of breed makes up her essence.

One guess I have is that she is part bloodhound because of her super sensitive nose. She doesn't even look remotely close to being a bloodhound but she can sniff out anything. When she was a young pup, we would be walking through the yard and she would start sniffing real hard along the ground. About 5 to 10 feet later, she would start digging in the ground furiously and she would scratch a mole or some other kind of rodent.

The other day we were walking outside, and Molly comes to a dead stop, and sticks her nose almost straight up in the air. She takes a couple of sniffs, her nose is twitching furiously, and she takes a hard look at her dog lot which is slightly to the northwest of us, about 40 yards away. I look up that way and I don't see anything out of the ordinary or any animals lurking around. Molly has other ideas and makes a beeline for the lot. She starts sniffing real hard and looking underneath the platform that her lot sits on. When we get to the far edge, she flushes out a cat that was hiding underneath the platform. I was amazed that she smelled the cat from about 40 yards away and knew exactly where it was at.

Molly's weakness has always been rabbits. There must be a special smell about them or something because she can smell a rabbit from about a mile away. They also provide the opportunity for a good chase. This morning I had her in her lot and there was a rabbit that emerged from the woods behind my neighbors house. I don't think Molly could see him because her view was obstructed by a utility building but she starts barking because she knew he was there. She smelled his presence. He quickly beat feet back into the woods. I posted on my Facebook page that the Easter bunny had come to visit my house but Molly had chased him off.

As sensitive as her nose is, the one smell she is oblivious too is her own farts. There is a children's story out there called "Walter the Farting Dog" and this dog cannot have anything on Molly. Last night she was laying in the floor and I caught a whiff of one of her eye watering, nose hair burning, noxious gas bombs that you can't escape from fast enough and she just laid there looking at me and made no effort to run for cover like I did. She probably thought it was funny and she also probably thought she may have owed me one.