I heard it too, Buddy. The sharp “chirp, chirp, chirp!” from somewhere on the wood pile. You look at me with a furrowed brow, then towards the woodpile. The girls are equally intrigued by the familiar noise. Angel rises to full alert. Sunny Girl jumps up and takes one step towards the wood pile. That’s your cue. 
You raise your tired body up, and with your best effort, limp over to the wood pile, determined to get that Chipper!
All hell breaks loose. Not much compares to the dedicated frenzy of 3 dogs in hot pursuit of one, striped gopher. Relentless sniffing, scruffing, scratching and scouring the entire wood pile for the slightest glimpse of Chipper. These up north Chippers seem to enjoy the chase. They taunt and tease, and are flirting with disaster, for sure.
Remember the first time we had “Chipper score” in the yard? What a day! You had not been with us very long. Angel and Sunny Girl were still sizing you up. Clearly you had been telling them stories in dog speak about your amazing natural ability to hunt, probably bragging that I would be taking you hunting everywhere once we were done with training. Clearly that’s what you were doing. Why else would Angel have gone “Rambo”?
The four of us were relaxing in the back yard that day. The girls would climb up on your training table ramps, determined to command my attention. You were playing it cool, not giving them any reaction. Then in a single bound you would be across the yard, on top and center of the almost three foot high table, wagging your tail as if to say;
“There! That will show them! I am king of this table!” The two blonde dust mops would scramble back down the ramps and under the swing.
Angel was always annoyed by you. You, the big, dark colored, over-zealous boy dog. She would lie across the yard, staring at you, waiting for just the right moment to go after you. And you would try to engage her in a game of “chase me, hairball, I bet you can’t catch me.” Of course she would take the bait. You would run tight circles in the yard with her hot on your heels, just out of nipping reach. You would strategically slow down, giving her a false feeling of victory, then, put on the booster dash and leave her in the dust.
Angel fancied herself as the family Alpha, even back then. But you were bigger than her, faster than her, you could jump higher than her, and seemed to have an obnoxious special bond with her human. Of course she wanted to kick your butt.
You were gliding across the yard with ease. She was digging in hard on the turns, grunting and growling, teeth showing, getting very close to catching your back leg when suddenly a sharp “chirp, chirp, chirp!” rang out from the shed.
Bam! Three dogs immediately dash to the shed. Angel dives into the brush on the back side, Sunny Girl tip toes around the front, and you are racing back and forth in excitement. With long blonde hair tossing wildly, and ferocious yips and growls, Angel demands the Chipper to show himself. You are darting back and forth, not sure how to be included on the front line, but very sure you should not overstep Angel. The Chipper decides to make a run for it from the edge of the wood pile, and bursts out like a bullet towards the garden. Angel pounds the earth with all fours, digging in hard, grunting, growling, teeth showing, sprinting after the critter. You politely dart to the right to head him off, causing the Chipper to veer back towards Angel. She leaps into the air just as the chipper swerves her direction and grabs it by the neck.
What happened next? Well let’s just say she dispatched the animal. When it stopped moving in her death grip jaws, Angel carried it across the yard, laid it down in the grass in front of her, and sat back like a sphinx, reveling in all her glory.
Buddy, the look on your face was priceless. Dazed and confused. How in the world could that useless dust mop successfully nab that Chipper? After all, she’s a girl.
Yes indeed she is our good girl. Angel commanded the first harvest of you siblings, and in our own back yard!
You were in awe of your sister. You slowly moved over to where she laid like a sphinx with her trophy, and sat down in front of her the way Subjects bow to their Queen.
All this while, Sunny Girl had been guarding the shed front. Realizing something was up; she sprang over to Angel, and came to an abrupt stop. Carefully she sniffed out the expired Chipper, eyed her sister, then slowly backed up and sat next to you, joining you in respect and reverence.
Angel basked in the glory of her harvest for hours, occasionally nudging the limp critter on the ground, then glancing around to see who might be bearing witness to her achievement. I finally had to request permission to remove the “evidence”. She begrudgingly obliged.
Our lives changed that day. She made her point, secured her pack position, and it inspired you to become the amazing hunting machine I’ve been so fortunate to walk the fields with the last decade.
We are an outdoors family. But you are still the master hunter of the house even now, dear Buddy.
Look!
There he is again!
Look, guys, another one!
Get the Chippers!!!!
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